In the absence of activity, we should no longer be surprised that we are talking again about importing milk which will cost an arm and a leg for an already bloodless country.
The scene that took place, in a supermarket located at the exit of the Ariana, reminded me of what I had experienced in Moscow at the time of… the Soviet Union. On the mission, in the middle of Ramadan, we had to find something to ensure the ”shour”. A big box was selling it. You had to queue and spend almost three-quarters of an hour to see your turn. By taking possession of the precious box of condensed milk, we still had to queue to…pay. This happened (it still is) to buy one or two kilos of sugar.
Meanwhile, the National Guard and control teams flush out clandestine depots to get their hands on tens of tons of sugar stored by speculators and food magnates who see their bank accounts prosper.
This is also the case with milk, where you can only have two liters at a time. Unfortunately, there is nothing to say about this because, by freeing up purchases, there will be those who will be tempted to buy a full load of two shopping carts to store them at home and empty, without scruples, the market in one wink.
After poultry, which we will certainly come back to, it’s milk’s turn to take center stage. We bet that there will be a next small passage on the screen of the date speculators of which it is the season. Then it will be the turn of citrus fruits. The lowest quality will be sold the first weeks at crazy prices. The best ones will be overpriced in… four months, during the month of Ramadan.
Not the first time
Milk is not the first time that this product has been in crisis. And as usual, cattle feed, dairy cows that go to slaughterhouses or cross borders, “small” producers who have gone bankrupt, milk dumped in the streets so as not to sell it at a loss, etc. . The same excuses. “Copy-paste” that we review to justify a price increase or to further amplify the cries of distress from producers. Let’s recognize that the price of a liter of milk sold in Tunisia is one of the lowest in the world and that the majority of producers are in distress.
State compensation, which pays the difference between the approved selling price and the cost price (including the price of the packaging that goes into the bins), has allowed this… sprain which, whether we like it or no, is a poor way to educate the consumer. The fact remains that the fact that this problem is resting, in a cyclical way, proves that the ”responsible”, at all levels, have done their job badly.
An alarming statement
The press release published by Synagri is clear: “No longer invest in the sector as long as the State does not take measures to regularize it”. In addition, several observers and specialists in the field have constantly warned about the dangerousness of the hoarding by 12 companies, including 7 belonging to a “large group” of 80% of compound feed imports.
These companies in fact control not only the import market, but also the production of meat through its subsidiaries. It is thus in a situation of monopoly upstream and downstream of the sector, as a whole. Farmers, and in particular ”the small ones”, have become simple sub-contractors at home… Better still, the official bodies, in charge of the distribution of animal feed in principle according to well-defined standards and quotas, have abandoned all their work rules to go into ”anarchy” in full view of everyone and especially of the supervisory authority and the other ”representative” body of farmers, the Union Tunisian Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (Utap).
Although solutions exist for the encouragement of the production and importation of once prosperous animal feed, the two ministries, that of Commerce and that of Agriculture, are turning a deaf ear to the calls.
Without going into considerations that could lead to unnecessary controversy, there is, no doubt, some truth. A lot of truth. In these very specific sectors, speculation is in full swing. For a very long time.
Inertia and inefficiency
Feedstuffs and their inputs are cited first. What have the authorities done to address this issue? Nothing. Once the storm passed, they returned to their devastating bureaucracy for agriculture and livestock which can no longer even survive.
Consequently giving more power to the magnates who control this milk market, the poultry sector and the production of red meats. At the level of all sectors.
Tunisia produced in 2021 the equivalent of one billion four hundred and seventy five liters of milk. This is almost what the country needs for its consumption. We bet that there are other large quantities that have been dumped on the roads, others that have become unfit for consumption due to the difficulties encountered at the collection centers.
What about the drying unit?
In this regard, everyone seems to have forgotten that the milk, which manufacturers knowingly refuse to take so as not to lower prices, could have been transformed into powder, stored and used when the time came. What happened to this milk drying unit?
Milk consumption per capita is around one hundred and ten liters according to the INS. Tunisian production, provided by a majority of small and medium-sized producers, would effortlessly suffice for national consumption. While all connoisseurs of the field admit that Tunisia is able to reach and even go far beyond self-sufficiency, we note with regret that there is no effort to launch research to at least replace certain inputs from abroad with local products. And yet, specialists in the sector assure that there is a way to replace soybeans and corn, which are the most expensive and most used products for the manufacture of these foods.
Lack of will to act
The means of communication regularly report on the successes of Tunisian men and women in scientific or high-tech sectors. This means that if the will to get out of this vicious circle existed, we could find a solution to all these problems which poison the lives of producers and consumers. This culpable silence, this inertia and this inefficiency play into the hands of those who control the market! Two main producers rule the roost. They take what they want, impose their conditions and their pace, completely turn their backs on a definitive solution. They lock everything, facing the rest of the producers, at all levels, have the logistical, financial and technical means allowing them to see coming face to face with this imposing and cumbersome administration which is, for the moment, unable to stand up to them. No one is able to make them return to better feelings in this dark period that the country is going through. At one time, there was Sidi Bouali’s Stil and Tunisie Lait, which were able to hold their own by directing prices through a strict calculation of cost prices. These two production units are no longer able to play this role. One has disappeared from the dairy landscape and the other has converted. These two production units are no longer able to play this role. One has disappeared from the dairy landscape and the other has converted. These two production units are no longer able to play this role. One has disappeared from the dairy landscape and the other has converted.
Whole or vitaminized milk
While semi-skimmed milk is lacking, whole or vitamin milk, the price of which is not approved, is offered on the shelves. This latest alert is not only a question of the price of milk on sale, it is above all a question of rescuing a sector that the country has patiently put in place for three decades, at the cost of many sacrifices. With the increases in manpower, materials, food, fuel, packaging, the manifest impossibility of the State to settle its arrears, etc., it is no longer possible to sustain the rhythm and to ensure a production worthy of the name. This amounts to saying that it is first of all at the level of production that the price of milk must evolve to avoid this catastrophe that is looming. It is then the political will to rely on oneself to free us from the yoke of these inputs which are becoming unaffordable. In the absence of action, we should no longer be surprised that we are talking again about importing milk which will cost an arm and a leg for an already bloodless country.
