Tunisia has earmarked around 1.5 billion dinars to finance the basket of grain imported from abroad, which represents around 53.7% of all food imports.
These figures, reported by the National Observatory for Agriculture in a press release on the “evolution of the food trade balance”, come at a time when the country is aiming to collect around 5.3 million quintals during the current agricultural season.
Grain accounted for 54.7% of the country’s total food imports at the end of May 2023.
Tunisia used these funds to purchase wheat (durum and soft), which represents around 1 billion dinars or 68.5% of the grain basket, which consists of feed barley and maize.
The average import price of durum wheat fell by 14.7%, while the average import price of common wheat, which is needed by the local market, dropped by 21.2%.
The government is encouraging farmers to collect grain by setting prices for the receipt of grain from collection centres and by introducing a circumstantial incentive subsidy for the 2024 harvest.
The prices for accepting durum wheat for collection are TND 140 per quintal, TND 110 per quintal for soft wheat and TND 90 per quintal for barley and triticale.
It should be noted that Tunisia’s general trade deficit widened to TND 6,413 million at the end of May 2024, compared to TND 8,100.7 million in the same period of 2023.
At the end of May 2024, Tunisia’s trade balance stood at around TND 26,750 million in exports and TND 33,162.9 million in imports.
