TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia, the world's fourth-largest olive oil producer, increased sales abroad by 15 percent to 89,300 tonnes over the first three months of the year, government data showed on Tuesday.

Olive oil represents half the country's farm exports which account for more than 10 percent of total exports.

Tunisia sells 90 percent of its olive output abroad, mainly to Europe.

The value of olive oil exports rose to 398.2 million dinars for the period from 291.9 million dinars a year earlier as world prices soared.

The North African country's average annual olive crop stood at 145,000 tonnes over the previous decade. It wants to boost local production to 210,000 tonnes in the coming three years.

More than 1 million families out of the nation's 10 million population benefit from the labour-intensive olive oil industry, with 60 million olive trees covering 1.6 million hectares.