Launch of the Olive Harvest Season in the Manouba Governorate
The olive harvest season in the Manouba governorate kicked off this morning, Wednesday, in a private domain in the Borj El Amri delegation, with forecasts indicating a production of 8,780 tons of oil olives, representing a 16% increase compared to last year's harvest.
Overview of the Harvest Season
On this occasion, the governor of the region, Mahmoud Choaib, was briefed on the indicators of the new harvest, the situation of the sector, and the concerns of farmers and workers, in the presence of the person in charge of managing the delegation, the president of the Regional Union of Farmers, and the local delegate.
Production Indicators
The presented data showed an improvement in production indicators, with an expected production of 1,756 tons of oil after transforming the quantity of olives harvested in 17 active oil mills in the region. The majority of these mills have started accepting olives, with a total processing capacity estimated at 682 tons per day and a storage capacity estimated at 2,171 tons. Among these oil mills, 9 operate in a continuous system, 4 are high-pressure, and 4 are traditional.
Employment and Agricultural Land
The duration of the necessary harvest is estimated at 120 days, which will provide 125,000 working days for 1,250 workers in the areas with the highest concentration (Tébourba and Borj El Amri delegations). This concerns a total area of 14,125 hectares, with approximately 1,417,046 olive trees, representing 63% of the area of fruit trees.
Quality Control and Modern Techniques
The inauguration of the season included monitoring the process of receiving and transforming olives in two oil mills in Borj El Amri and Jedaida, where modern techniques used were presented, and emphasis was placed on the need to take more measures to ensure the production of high-quality oils, while paying particular attention to the evacuation of margins. This involves continuing to implement the program for spreading this material for fertilizing olive trees and fruit trees, in accordance with the rules in force and respecting the authorized quantities.
Market and Sales
The opening of the season, which sees a diversity of olive varieties produced and differing according to the delegations of the region, notably good local varieties, was accompanied by scenes of olive sales on stalls and oil sales in certain stores and oil mills, at prices reaching 12 dinars in Tébourba, as well as the marketing of table oil, whose production is expected to double according to the delegation's forecasts to reach 1,650 tons, on daily and weekly markets.
Direct Sales to Consumers
It is worth noting that 40% of the total olive oil production in the region is purchased directly by consumers from the producer in the oil mills during the entire transformation period, due to their proximity to urban areas, which allows the rest of the production to be stored in good conditions.
