The food trade deficit fell by 64% to TND 723 million at the end of November 2023, compared with TND 2013 million for the same period last year, according to data published by the National Agricultural Observatory (ONAGRI).
The achieved coverage rate was 89.4% at the end of November 2023, compared with 72.1% at the end of November 2022.
In terms of value, food exports increased by 17.6% compared to the end of November 2022, reaching TND 6,117.8 million. Imports decreased by 5.2% to TND 6,840.9 million at the end of November 2023 compared to the same period last year.
According to ONAGRI, the decrease in the deficit is mainly due to the rise in olive oil exports (+48.1%) and the decrease in imports of grain (-11.3%) and vegetable oils (-38.2%), despite the increase in imports of sugar (+72.0%) and milk and derivatives (+50.3%).
Export prices increased by 58.7% for olive oil, 28.7% for tomatoes, 5.1% for dates and 1% for citrus fruits. However, the average export price of fish products fell by 6.6%.
Conversely, import prices of grain fell by 26.6% for durum wheat, 22.4% for soft wheat, 25.4% for barley and 20.8% for maize. The same is true for the prices of vegetable oils (-22.7%) and milk and derivatives (-4%), compared to an increase of 13.4% for sugar.
