The government approves a plan to store 150,000 tons of olive oil

The government has approved a programme to instruct the National Oil Board to store between 100,000 and 150,000 tonnes of olive oil for three months if necessary. This came during a narrow cabinet chaired by Minister of Planning and Housing Sara Zaafrani Zenzri, who is in charge of the Ministry of Transport at the Government Palace in Basaba, dedicated to follow up the preparations for the 2025-2026 season and identify mechanisms for financial and logistical intervention.

The government has agreed to grant a state guarantee for the interest of the national oil debt to obtain financing from the public and private banking sectors to purchase quantities of local crops. This funding is aimed at supporting farmers, promoting market balance and preventing price fluctuations, as well as monitoring the reserve allowance for system intruders with additional allowance to farmers involved in the process.

The decisions included giving priority to smallholder farmers in acquiring machine-generating equipment and facilitating their access to concessional loans, based on the regulatory system for granting agricultural grants approved through the Agricultural Investment Promotion Agency to facilitate collection and conversion processes.

The measures included instructing the Central Bank in coordination with banking institutions to reschedule the debts of struggling contemporaries, while extending the defined scope for settling export revenues, complementing previous measures that the President of the Republic had approved on 6 November 2024 to ensure the smoothness of harvesting and distribution locally and internationally.

The next steps of the government are aimed at commissioning the state to directly follow the field of production and yield coordination in various bodies, in parallel with the start of preparing a strategic study for the development of the entire olive oil system and drawing up a blueprint for the structure of the National Oil Court.