Tunisia is amongst the largest olive oil producers in the world. Produced under large-scale monoculture on prime irrigated agricultural land, 90% of crude olive oil is exported to Spain and Italy where it is refined and sold on to European consumers. In the process, Tunisia loses out on significant value-add. For small farmers and agricultural workers, it is clear that in the context of multiple and intersecting crises, agricultural and trade policy in Tunisia and the broader North Africa region must be re-imagined. 

As one of the participants, Layla articulated during a two day workshop that TNI organised together with the Tunisian Platform for Alternatives in Tunis in July, “In talking about [agricultural] trade relations, we have to talk about power relations. The way to challenge these power relations has to be built from within, starting with farmers, agricultural workers, traders, and cooperatives. They have to come together in a movement.”