The production program for one million olive plants launched by Algeria should be completed by the end of 2024, an official of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said on Wednesday.
An announcement made during a meeting with the press organized by the National Association of Traders and Artisans (ANCA) on the occasion of the opening of the olive harvest campaign.
It is under the title ” The olive oil market between demand satisfaction and export prospects » that various interventions reported by the APS agency made it possible to take stock of the progress made in the olive sector.
On this occasion, Radouane Messaoudi, deputy director in charge of arboriculture in the ministry, took stock of the actions in the Algerian olive oil sector.
According to the ranking of the International Olive Council (COIL), Algeria ranks fourth in the world for the production of table olives and seventh for the areas of olive oil production.
With an area of almost 443,000 hectares spread over several regions of the country, today the olive tree represents 45% of the tree growing areas in Algeria.
With only 160,000 hectares planted before 2000, the goal from the ministry is to reach the planting of one million hectares by 2030.
Currently, Algeria’s annual olive oil production is estimated at 100 million liters, said Redouane Messaoudi.
A production obtained from 48 million olive trees, although the total number is 65 million trees. However, some of the olive trees have not come into production or only produce every other year due to the rotation mechanism.
Out of a total of more than 9 million quintals of olive trees, 3 million are table olives and more than 6 million are intended for olive oil.
Another aspect noted by Radouane Messaoud: “ Algeria currently has more than 48 varieties of olive trees listed in the official catalog. », an asset to adapt to drought.
Olive oil in the Maghreb: countries in scattered order
In Algeria, the price of olive oil is expected to be high this season. An identical situation in neighboring countries. In Morocco, the drought has led to the withering of some olive groves. As for Tunisia, the country prioritizes the execution of its export contracts to Europe to the detriment of the domestic market.
According to expert Ahmed Malha, who had the opportunity to speak on Wednesday, “ this year olive oil will be expensive and we won’t find any. It will be more expensive than last year “.
He predicted a price of 1,500 DA per liter, which caused the room to react. In response, this specialist recalled that the cost price, without counting all farmers’ fees, reached DA 1,500 per liters and that this year’s oil harvest should be low in Algeria due to the negative effect of high spring temperatures.
What this farmer confirms on social networks, out of his 300 olive trees, only ten had satisfactory fruits. The reason was the sirocco that occurred during flowering and the subsequent drying of the flowers.
” Considering the drop in production which is around 30%, yes we can expect an increase in prices all over the world », adds Hakim Alileche, investor and owner of the premium olive oil brand Dahbia, which has won several international awards.
In addition to the drop in production due to drought, Hakim Alileche expects a drop in yield from olive crushing. ” Olives are expensive this year, the yield will decrease “, he explains to the TSA.
Last year, regular olive oil was sold at an average price of 1,000 dinars per kilo. A small producer in the Béjaia region expects a 20% price increase this year due to the drop in production.
” In my fields, olive trees are rare this year. It is connected to alternating production, but also to the drought that raged last spring “, he explains.
Ahmed Malha recalled that the demand for oil and olives in Tunisia is so high that last year Tunisian consumers did not hesitate to come to Algeria to buy oil for 25 Tunisian dinars a day or 1,000 DA at the official rate.
He added that faced with the shortage of olives, “ this year, in the border regions, Tunisian mills are buying olives because this country is involved in export operations “.
He therefore recommended increasing the areas and especially super-intensive plantations, as is practiced abroad. A water-intensive practice. He also recommended for mountain areas the grafting of oleasters (wild olive trees) with varieties of productive olive trees.
A difficult situation was also confirmed during a meeting of the Tunisian commission for the organization and monitoring of the 2024-2025 olive growing season.
On this occasion, the Tunisian Minister of Agriculture, Ezzedine Ben Cheikh, indicated that production should be 340,000 tons of olive oil by 2024.
He insisted on the importance of the local market in competition with exports, an activity which “ helps to remedy the trade balance deficit and ensures a significant foreign exchange inflow » to Tunisia, notes the local press. However, olive oil is sky high on the Tunisian domestic market.
In Morocco, ” the pain of the olive groves »
In Morocco, the situation for olive groves is serious. At the end of August, the media Le360 did not hesitate to speak “torment of olive groves “.
Because of ” declining production and persistent drought “, consequently “ the sector is faltering » according to the same source, who gives the floor to Rachid Benali, the president of the Moroccan Interprofessional Olive Federation (Interolive).
This announces a year which will be ” very difficult “. It testifies to the desolate spectacle that the olive groves present in different parts of Morocco: ” The trees, which were about to crumble under the olives, now stand stripped and skeletal on a cracked ground. Dead leaves litter the ground, carried by a hot, dry wind, which only exacerbates the scene of destruction “.
Faced with the lack of rain, irrigation conditions worsened, farmers had to irrigate for 8 months compared to the usual 4 to 5: ” Those who pumped water from a depth of 100 meters must now draw it from 200 meters, which has tripled energy costs », confides the expert.
Still in Morocco, this year’s low production has caused labor costs to explode: “ While we paid between 1.2 and 1.5 dirhams per harvested kilo, this cost has now risen to more than 3 dirhams per kilos, because the workers face a much more difficult harvest. », explains Rachid Benali.
The result is that prices skyrocket to reach 150 dirhams per liter or 15 euros (2200 Algerian dinars at the official rate of the euro, which is 146 dinars per unit), and this professional mentions the possibility of having to import olive oil to meet the local market.
Near Marrakech, Omar Benchekroun owns 30 hectares of olive trees and continues the hyper-intensive planting of about fifteen other hectares. He also enjoys drilling and has built a pool the size of a football pitch. Watering is localized and uses the drip technique.
On the other hand, in Loudaya, near Marrakech, Mustapha Elghazouni and Saïd Elmaoumouri are not so lucky. These small farmers no longer have access to water and their olive trees grown in the traditional way have completely dried up.
After cereals, olive trees are affected by the drought. This reduces the size of the olive, but more seriously, a few days of sirocco in the spring and the flowers dry out and then stop. A situation that challenges the olive industry in all Maghreb countries.
