Tunisia has not fully exhausted the preferential export quotas granted by the European Union (EU) for thirteen agricultural products. This is what emerges from a study entitled “How to improve food security in Tunisia: intensifying mutual trade and investment links with the EU”.
According to this study, recently published by the German foundation Bertelsmann Stiftung, conducted by economists Houssem Eddine Chebbi and Markus Overdiek, Tunisia needs additional short-term support from the EU to boost agricultural investments and raise challenges brought about by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
Agricultural products with strong export opportunities while not meeting actual potential include olive oil (export opportunities: US$534 million, actual exports: US$407 million), dates (export opportunities: US$249 million, actual exports: US$129 million), fresh tomatoes (export opportunities: US$44 million, actual exports: US$41 million).
Tunisia must make an in-depth analysis, based on updated and accurate statistics, of its agricultural production to develop its future target product strategies, the authors of the study stressed.
One of the main objectives would be to “engage in talks with the European bloc and increase export quotas for strategic products such as olive oil. This would have a positive impact on the national economy and therefore on the stability of the country,” they add.
Tunisian olive oil exports reached 1,941 million dinars (MD) since the start of the campaign (November 2021/August 2022), up 30.1%, compared to the same period of the campaign 2020-2021, indicates the National Observatory of Agriculture (Onagri), Friday, September 2022.
The average price of olive oil increased by 38%, from 7.66 dinars per kg to 10.57 dinars per kg.
In terms of quantity, exports fell by 5.7% to 184,000 tons, compared to 194.8 thousand tons recorded in the 2020/2021 campaign.
