The food trade balance recorded a surplus of 614.8 million dinars (MD) in the first quarter of 2025, compared with a surplus of 1,115.5 MD in the same period of the previous year, according to data published by the National Observatory of Agriculture (ONAGRI).
The coverage rate thus reached 134.7% at the end of March 2025, compared with 161.6% at the end of March 2024. In value terms, food exports fell by 18.4%, while imports fell by 2.1%.
The decline was mainly due to lower exports of olive oil (-23.3%), dates (-18.7%) and fish products (-31.6%), despite lower imports of grain (-18.3%), sugar (-33.4%) and vegetable oils (-50.6%).
Export prices fell by 54.5% for olive oil and by 9.6% for fishery products, while they rose by 1.3% for dates and by 30.3% for citrus fruits.
Import prices of grain products fell by 18.5% for durum wheat and 3.5% for common wheat, while they rose by 4.7% for barley and 7.7% for maize.
Sugar prices also fell by 34.9%, while vegetable oils rose by 19% and milk and milk derivatives by 10.8%.
As a reminder, the country’s overall trade deficit in the first quarter of 2025 increased by 66.8% to (-5,050.5 MD) at the end of March 2025, compared to (-3,027.4 MD) at the end of March 2024.
Total imports rose from 19,315.3 MD at the end of March 2024 to 20,375.5 MD at the end of March 2025, an increase of 5.5%.
The two product groups of energy and raw materials and semi-finished goods together accounted for 50.3% of the country’s total imports.
Food imports accounted for 8.7% of total imports at 10,169.2 MD. Food exports made up 15.6% of total exports.
The food trade surplus helped reduce the overall trade deficit by 24.7%.
