Tunisia’s food trade balance deficit soared in January 2023 to TND 151 million, from TND 62.4 million in January. 2022, data published by the National Observatory of Agriculture (ONAGRI) Thursday showed.
The coverage rate stood at 79.2% against 88.8% in January 2022.
The deficit is due to the increase by 63.2% in grain imports and 40.3% in vegetable oils, despite the rise by 20.4% in olive oil exports.
Imports went up by 30.3% in value, to TND 724.9 million, while food exports posted a more modest rise of 16.2%, to TND 573.9 million.
Grain import prices fell by 17.2% for durum wheat, compared with an 8.4% rise for maize, 6.8% for soft wheat and 3.9% for barley.
The same applies to the prices of milk and by-products (+20.4%), sugar (+17.9%) and vegetable oils (+4.4%).
The average price of olive oil for export edged up by 40.5% to TND 15.09/kg, posting a clear rise between 2022 and 2023 (January).
Prices also went up by 12.4% for dates and 1.6% for citrus fruits compared to the same period of the previous year.
On the other hand, prices for fish products and tomatoes fell by 9.7% and 1.8%, respectively.
