(Ecofin Agency) - For the African countries in the Mediterranean area, the market was never as ready for olive farming as now. Indeed, the market price for olive oil has reached its highest level over the past ten years at 4,099.52 Euros per ton. This increase is mainly due to the challenges faced by the two main producers of this oil, Spain and Italy.

If Spain usually provides 45% of the world production of the oil, it is now struggling to reach this quota due to the current dry season experienced throughout the nation. As for Italy, it is fighting with “Xylla Fastidiosa”, a bacterium which decimated half the country’s production.

The Latin countries’ loss is the gain of the North Africans who, like Tunisia, have taken advantage of the situation to increase their exports towards the European countries. The performance of Tunis, which exports 75% of its production to the EU (about 115,000 tons), has aroused the interest of Rabat which has set itself the target of becoming the world top 3 within five years. And it does not matter if the kingdom needs to multiply by five its production! Thanks to its Green Morocco Plan, real drive of its agricultural economy, Morocco has already planted 1 million hectares of olive groves on the 1.2 million hectares required to reach its goal.

At a time when the price of virgin olive oil has moved from 24 dirhams per kilogram to 35 dirhams in a year, the passion of producers is now matching the ambitions of the leaders.