Après la récolte, les olives sont transportées au pressage où les étapes de traitement commencent :

• Livraison et pesage
• Élimination des feuilles, qui est une étape nécessaire parce qu'ils donnent un goût amer à l'huile d'olive et l'enrichit de chlorophylle qui est un facteur négatif pour la qualité
• Lavage
• Mouture et broyage, où les olives sont écrasées avec les marteaux mécaniques (antérieurement avec des machines-outils à pierres)
• Malaxage de la pulpe d’olive.
• Séparation centrifuge de la pierre des olives.
• Collection de l’huile de la pulpe d’olive.
• La séparation finale où l'eau est séparée de l'huile et l'huile est purifiée.
• Conditionnement et étiquetage

Tunisia’s olive resources are estimated at over 65 million olive trees, grown on 1 680 000 ha, of which 75 000 ha are for certified organic crops. It is a source of employment for 269 000 or 57% of the country’s farmers and accounts for 45% of the agricultural exports, averaging 120 000 t per year.

At world level Tunisia is ranked fourth in terms of the number of olive trees and second in terms of acreage. Mean orchard density ranges between 100 and 150 trees/ha in irrigated orchards and 40 trees/ha in rain fed orchards farmed for oil production. When intended for table olives, orchard densities vary from 200 trees/ha in irrigated conditions to 100 trees/ha under dry-farming.

As a rule, there are 100 olive trees/ha in the North, compared with 60 trees/ha in the Centre and 20 trees/ha in the South. At present, there are 2 000 ha of super-intensive orchards, which produce an average 7–8 t per ha.

Three categories of olive orchards emerge when broken down by age bracket:

	Young orchards: 17%
	Bearing orchards: 58%
	Old orchards: 25%

Traditionally, Tunisia produces an average 100 000 t of olive oil per year; however, during the period 2000/01–2003/04, production averaged 129 300 t and recorded a peak level of 280 000 t in 2003/04.
There are huge year-to-year swings in production (they vary by a factor of 1 to 8), depending on various factors such as the characteristic alternate bearing pattern of olive growing, rainfalls and cultural practices.

To give an example, production oscillated widely from 270 000 t in 1996/97 to 35 000 t in 2001/02 and 72 000 t in 2002/03 because of three consecutive seasons of drought.
In 2003/04, it climbed again to reach an all-time high of 280 000 t. In terms of volume, Tunisia is the world’s second producer, behind the European Union taken as a whole, and it lies fourth when the individual countries of the European Union are considered, coming after Spain, Italy and Greece.
 

Although progress has been made in improving cultural practices, these yields are still very small and lie below the actual potential.

Olives are found in all the regions of Tunisia, from North to South, They are cultivated with other crops such as cereals in the North, citrus fruits and vine in the Cap Bon peninsula, and strictly as a monoculture in the southern areas (Sousse, Mahdia, Sfax, etc.). Close to 90% of cultivated olive acreage is located in the central and southern regions.

The processing sector is going through a transitional stage featuring the creation and modernization of olive oil mills and the gradual move away from traditional methods.

Currently, there are 1 517 olive oil working mills in Tunisia. Crushing capacity has climbed from around 8 000 t/day in 1986 to the present level of 28 000 t/day.
Despite the clear move towards modernization, traditional mills (52%) still slightly outnumber modern processing facilities (48%). The modernization of the processing sector coupled with improved cultural practices has led to more and better product; for instance, 70% of the Tunisian production is of quality oils, compared with 25% in 1985.

The processing sector also comprises 14 refineries; however, only a small amount of their activity is dedicated to olive oil owing to the small demand for refined olive oil.
There are also 14 olive-pomace oil extraction plants, which operate at below-capacity and 35 modern packing plants, which have been consolidated in recent years and afford great potential for boosting the expansion of the sector.