The Tunisian citrus fruit export revenues dropped by 27.8% to reach by April 7, 23 MTD (Million Tunisian Dinar) while in volume the exports fell by 8.6%, although the season was far from the health crisis caused by the spread of the coronavirus.
The Tunisian citrus fruit export season was not affected by this pandemic, Tunisia was capable to export most of the scheduled quantities, said the National Observatory of Agriculture (ONAGRI) in its report on the state of progress of the citrus fruit season in time of the health crisis.
Nevertheless, the volume of exports of “Maltese” fell by 36.8%, to reach in 2020, 8,165.5 tons, 86% of which of this variety are exported to France, followed in the 2nd position by Libya with 27.7% of all Tunisian exports including the variety “Thomson.”
The Tunisian exports of citrus fruits have lost their position on some European markets (Italy and Germany), compared to last year’s results, in addition to no exports to the Russian and African markets.
Based on the data of the interprofessional fruit group, the ONAGRI recommended examining the problems related to marketing in order to design a new scenario to cope with this pandemic with a view to increasing export capacity and preserving traditional markets, while prospecting other export niches, identifying new methods for citrus processing and consolidating quality standards.
