The food trade balance recorded a deficit of 2154.4 million dinars in August 2022, against a deficit of 1321.9 MD during the same period last year, according to data released by the National Observatory of Agriculture (ONAGRI) Thursday.
The rate of coverage has reached 63.8% in 2022 against 68.8% in 2021, said the same source.
In terms of value, food exports went up 30.6% while imports grew 40.7%.
According to ONAGRI, the deficit recorded is particularly the result of the increased pace of imports of grain (+48.9%), vegetable oils (+109.5%) and sugar (+65.6%) and this despite the rise olive oil exports (+33.0%).
The price of durum wheat soared 89.6%, compared to last year. The prices of other grain products (soft wheat, barley and corn) have recorded an increase ranging between 44% and 61%. This increase is mainly related to the impact of the war between Russia and Ukraine.
According to the Observatory, export prices have seen a rise of 31.7% for olive oil, 12.1% for citrus and 8.5% for fisheries products compared to the same period last year.
However, those of dates and tomatoes have declined by 4.4% and 3.7% respectively.
It is the same for import prices of grain which have soared (+89.6%) for durum wheat, (+62.4%) for barley, (+61.0%) for soft wheat and (+44.2%) for corn.
The price of vegetable oils and sugar also grew 62.80% and 46.7% respectively.
