Sustainable Configuration of the Tunisian Olive Oil Supply Chain Using a Fuzzy TOPSIS-Based Approach

Agricultural production of olive oil is a sector with high significance. The olive sector is a very important sector for several countries in the world, in particular, for Tunisia. In addition, the impacts of olive oil production and extraction on economic, environmental, and social issues are considerable. The main objective of this work is to propose a better configuration of the Tunisian olive oil supply chain (OOSC) from a sustainable development (SD) perspective. The proposed approach consists of applying a fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method as a multi-criteria approach. The proposed approach is applied twice. In the first application, the objective is to compare five possible scenarios for the olive agricultural phase. In the second application, the objective is to compare three possible scenarios for the olive oil transformation phase. The major findings of this research include the following: (1) The best scenario for the agricultural phase is the intensified organic system, which is based on biodynamic olive growing. (2) The best scenario for the transformation phase (oil extraction) is the continuous two-phase extraction system. Consequently, the efficient way for the by-products processing phase is the use of wet pomace for the preparation of biodynamic compost.