Tunisia’s food trade deficit fell to TND 487.4 million in late May against TND 838.1 million during the same period last year, data released by the National Observatory of Agriculture (French: ONAGRI) show.
This is due to higher olive oil exports (+ 29%) against a decrease in grain imports (-16.3%) despite a faster growth in the imports of bran (+23.8%) and sugar (+126%).
The coverage rate of imports by exports stands at 85.6% against 76% during the first five months of 2022, knowing that Tunisia posted an 8.8% rise in the value of food exports compared to a 3.4% decline in the value of imports 4%.
Tunisia managed to bring its olive oil exports at the end of May 2023 to TND 1,470.7 million against TND 1,140.3 million during the same period in 2022, that is a 50.9% share in food exports against 43% last year.
The value of food imports edged down 3.4% to reach TND 3,374.6 million, that is 9.9% of all imports.
The value of grain imports amounted to TND 1,846.5 million, dropping 16.3% compared to the same period last year.
Grain imports account for 54.7% of all food imports until the end of May 2023, against 63.2% during the same period last year. Purchases mainly include wheat (TND 1076 million), that is 58.3% of grain imports.
Statistics also show the import price index of durum wheat posted a 20.7% drop, while that of soft wheat fell to 15.1%.
Meanwhile, the value of vegetable oil imports decelerated 15.3% to reach TND 385.4 million while the import price index fell by 7.7%. The value of sugar imports edged up 24.1%, compared to 2022.
The trade balance deficit over the first five months of 2023 narrowed to TND 8,102.2 million against TND 9,929.5 million last year.
This situation could be explained by higher exports (+11.3%) compared to 2022 and a 2.4% rise in imports.
Trade amounted to TND 25,903.7 million for exports and TND 34,005.9 million for imports.
