The food trade balance recorded a surplus of TND 1088.9 million in March 2024, compared with a deficit of TND 110.3 million in the same month of 2023.
This means that the coverage rate reached 159.3%, compared with 94.4% in March 2023, according to a note published on Wednesday by the National Observatory for Agriculture (ONAGRI).
This improvement is explained by a 57.5% increase in food exports, driven by the rise in exports of olive oil (+103.2%), fishery products (+46%) and dates (+18.4%), compared with a 6.7% fall in imports, mainly due to a fall in sugar imports (-52.1%).
ONAGRI also reported an increase of 81.8% in the average export price of olive oil (to TND 27.50 /kg), fish products (40.2%), citrus fruits (19.7%), tomatoes (8%) and dates (4.2%).
On the other hand, import prices of cereal products fell by 15.9% for durum wheat, 24.4% for soft wheat, 31.5% for barley and 25% for maize, as well as prices of other products, including vegetable oils (-24.7%) and milk and derivatives (-7%), compared to an increase of 38.2% for sugar.
