Spanish Farmers Urge Halt to Tunisian Olive Oil Imports Amid Traceability Concerns

Summary

The Spanish farm­ers’ union COAG is call­ing for the sus­pen­sion of Tunisian olive oil imports due to trace­abil­ity and mar­ket dis­tor­tion con­cerns, with large vol­umes of oil enter­ing the European mar­ket beyond the duty-free quota. COAG is urg­ing author­i­ties to ensure full trace­abil­ity before resum­ing imports and is echo­ing sim­i­lar calls in Italy, where con­cerns about falling prices and poten­tial fraud linked to Tunisia’s olive oil exports have been raised.

The Spanish farm­ers’ union, COAG, has called on Spanish and EU author­i­ties to imme­di­ately sus­pend imports of Tunisian olive oil, cit­ing seri­ous con­cerns about trace­abil­ity and mar­ket dis­tor­tions.

In a recent notice, COAG warned that insuf­fi­cient con­trols are allow­ing large vol­umes of so-called ​“ghost” Tunisian olive oil to enter the European mar­ket far beyond the 56,700-ton duty-free quota.

“We have a duty-free quota of 57,000 tons, yet of the 200,000 tons enter­ing the E.U., almost 100,000 come to Spain and are sys­tem­at­i­cally used to push down the price paid to pro­duc­ers,” said Francisco Elvira, agron­o­mist, olive farmer in Fuerte del Rey and Secretary General of COAG Jaén, in com­ments reported by Qcom.es.

Elvira said that as the hol­i­day sea­son approaches, Tunisian olive oil is enter­ing Spanish mar­kets at extremely low prices. ​“We can­not allow pro­duc­ers and con­sumers to be sys­tem­at­i­cally deceived, because that olive oil enter­ing Spain can­not be prop­erly traced,” he observed.

He also pointed to con­cerns raised in a recent pre­sen­ta­tion, not­ing that around 100,000 tons of Tunisian oil ​“are not in the super­mar­kets. What are they used for? Are they being con­cealed within our pro­duc­tion sys­tem?”

COAG said large vol­umes of Tunisian oil do not appear on prod­uct labels. ​“If Spain is the main or sec­ond-largest buyer of Tunisian olive oil, why does it prac­ti­cally never appear on labels? Where is it, and how is it being mar­keted?” the union wrote.

The group warned that Tunisian olive oil ​“may be mixed, re-labelled or tri­an­gu­lated with­out con­sumers being aware of the product’s true ori­gin.”

COAG empha­sized that Spanish farm­ers and pro­duc­ers face strin­gent inspec­tions, cer­ti­fi­ca­tions and con­sumer-infor­ma­tion rules, while ​“pref­er­en­tial imports from Tunisia are not sub­ject to the same trace­abil­ity and ori­gin require­ments (…) cre­at­ing unfair com­pe­ti­tion, seri­ous dis­tor­tions in national and inter­na­tional prices, the risk of tri­an­gu­la­tions toward third coun­tries, and a lack of trans­parency for con­sumers.”

The union cited esti­mates from Tunisia’s National Agriculture Observatory pro­ject­ing 210,700 tons of exports between August 2024 and August 2025. COAG ques­tioned how export vol­umes con­tinue ris­ing with­out cor­re­spond­ing quota adjust­ments. ​“What is really hap­pen­ing with that oil? Who is buy­ing it? How is it being sold? Under whose name is it leav­ing the coun­try?”

COAG urged author­i­ties to sus­pend Tunisia’s duty-free quo­tas until full trace­abil­ity is guar­an­teed. It also called for an end to active refine­ment and cus­toms-ware­house schemes that allow non-EU olive oil to enter the bloc for later export as a European processed prod­uct.

The union requested inten­si­fied trace­abil­ity checks on all imported olive oil — par­tic­u­larly in Andalusia — and asked mar­ket author­i­ties to inves­ti­gate poten­tial prac­tices that dis­tort com­pe­ti­tion or mis­lead con­sumers.

COAG’s posi­tion mir­rors grow­ing calls in Italy for scrutiny of Tunisian trade flows, amid reports of falling prices and alleged fraud linked to Tunisia’s record har­vest.

Recent data indi­cate that nearly 27 per­cent of Tunisian olive oil exports between November 2024 and August 2025 were des­tined for Italy, accord­ing to AGI report­ing.

Italian olive oil prices have dropped sharply — about 30 per­cent in the past month — nar­row­ing what was once a sig­nif­i­cant price gap with Spanish oils. Some Italian traders may be exploit­ing Tunisia’s ongo­ing cri­sis to widen mar­gins, accord­ing to analy­ses pub­lished by Teatro Naturale and addi­tional Olive Oil Times report­ing.

Some experts warn that tri­an­gu­lated trade may be bring­ing oil into Italy as a Spanish prod­uct that in fact orig­i­nates in Tunisia, as noted in another Teatro Naturale inves­ti­ga­tion.

Concerned about opaque trade flows affect­ing prices and farmer income across mul­ti­ple coun­tries, sev­eral Italian asso­ci­a­tions have demanded a broad inves­ti­ga­tion into Tunisian exports and the activ­i­ties of oper­a­tors work­ing in both Tunisia and Europe.

Italian mem­bers of the European Parliament have also urged the European Commission to exam­ine the scope and sever­ity of pos­si­ble fraud involv­ing untraced Tunisian olive oil, echo­ing ear­lier calls for action.