The closure of industrial units in Tunisia continued in 2022. All sectors of Tunisian industry have been affected.
Last year, 115 industrial companies closed down, of which 21 were entirely export oriented and 94 others were entirely export oriented.
In fact, according to updated data from the Agency for the Promotion of Industry and Innovation (APII), at the end of December 2022 there were 4,774 companies with at least 10 employees, of which 2,108 were fully exporting, compared to 4,889 and 2,129 respectively a year earlier.
This shrinking of the Tunisian industrial fabric has been going on since 2010 and affects both the fully exporting industry and the other industrial companies.
Thus, since the year before the revolution in 2010, Tunisia’s industrial fabric has lost 982 industrial sites, of which 632 (64.4%) are fully exporting. 545 companies have closed down, in the last four years alone (since 2019).
APII data show that 81 companies in partnership with Italian companies, 38 in partnership with French companies and 13 with Belgian companies have closed down since 2019.
This industrial decline has affected all sectors of Tunisian industry. Indeed, the textile and clothing industry has been the most affected, with 184 companies closing down since 2019, followed by the food industry with 96 companies, the building materials industry with 59 companies and the mechanical and metallurgical industry with 57 companies closing down since 2019.
