(Ecofin Agency) - Tunisian olive oil producers can rub their hands together: the 2014/2015 season has been truly exceptional for them. Indeed, the Tunisian council for olive oil has just indicated that the country should receive some 18 billion dinars (USD 8.2 billion) by the end of the season.

This performance was made possible as much by an excellent harvest as by the misfortunes currently experienced by the principal world producers particularly Spain and Italy who are respectively ranked 1^st and 3^rd. If it was the drought which brought down the Spanish production, Italian olives were, for their part decimated by “Xyllla Fastidiosa”, a bacteria which reduced by half the country’s production.

These vagaries forced Brussels to increase quotas for olive oil made in Tunisia which is crossing its borders. However, if the Tunisian olive is currently celebrating, the country’s farmers have to be wary of any progressive hyper-dependency on a product which represents 60% of the total food exports and 80% of organic exports.

During this season, Europe absorbed 73% of the Tunisian olive oil exports.