Olive oil may be overlooked as a commodity in the world economy, but for Tunisia it is the largest export earner and it provides livelihoods for hundreds of thousands of its people. The government has undertaken a concerted program to boost production and improve the earning potential of areas already under cultivation by improving irrigation and encouraging organic farming. These developments should help the sector surmount issues it faces such as trade limitations and an undeservedly shaky reputation in some countries. Tunisia will produce 1.1 million tons of olives and 200,000 tons of oil from them in 2007-2008, the Tunisian agriculture ministry announced last December. This will make this year the fifth in a row that it has produced this amount, placing it as the world’s fourth largest producer of olive oil, after Italy, Spain and Greece. The government has set its sights on boosting production further, to ensure that
