The food trade balance recorded a deficit of 180.6 million dinars in February 2021, against a surplus of 24.4 million dinars, during the same month of the previous year, according to data released by the National Observatory of Agriculture (ONAGRI).
The coverage rate has reached 83.3% in 2021 against 102.6% in 2020.
According to the observatory, the deficit recorded is the result of the increase in the pace of grain imports (+13.1%) on the one hand and the decline in olive oil exports (-7.5%) and dates (-4.0%) on the other hand, and this despite the increase in exports of citrus (+35.4%), tomatoes (+22.4%) and fish (+7.4%)
In terms of value, food exports went down 8.1% while imports grew 13.2%.
Export prices have seen an increase of 31.6% for olive oil, 31.1% for tomatoes and 1.9% for fisheries products compared to the same period last year.
On the other hand, those of dates and citrus fruits have declined by 15.7% and 1.4% respectively.
Grain import prices have risen (+12.3%) for durum wheat, (+13.9%) for soft wheat, (+9.8%) for barley and (+29.0%) for corn.
The same is true for the prices of milk and derivatives (+63.0%) and vegetable oils (+4.0%), while the prices of meat and sugar fell by (-59.0%) and (-11.9%) respectively.
