Olive Oil from Tunisia

Countries in North Africa have grown olive trees and produced olive products for millennia. Researchers found that the Phoenicians began cultivating the olive tree and spreading it across the Mediterranean through trade around the 10th century B.C.E., producing oil in Tunisia shortly thereafter.

The Phoenicians, seafarers and merchants coming from Lebanon, played a major role in bringing olive groves to North Africa. They established Carthage in present day Tunisia in 814 B.C. The Carthaginians, also known as Punics, planted one of the world’s oldest olive trees, the 2,500-year-old patriarch of Echraf located in the Tunisian peninsula of Cap Bon.

Carefully crafted Tunisian olive oils are rich in chlorophyll, carotene, lecithin (a natural antioxidant that stimulates the metabolism of fats, sugars, and proteins), polyphenols, and are a good source of vitamins A and D.

Tunisian olive farmers are increasingly engaged in meeting the growing global demand for quality and healthy products, exemplified by their extensive organic farming methods.

Since the establishment of the Olive Tree Institute at the University of Sfax in 1983, over 200 olive varieties have been registered and many are still to be characterized– a rich olive biodiversity that promises to make Tunisia a major player in the future of the olive oil industry.

Sacco Imports only imports olive oil produced by independent farmers using sustainable farming methods.

Supporting Sacco Imports with your purchase, you are helping to ensure that the oldest olive oil communities worldwide continue to thrive while you savor the Mediterranean’s most exquisite olive oils.