Tunisia’s industrial exports have seen their value increase by 19.4% to 41.7 billion dinars in 2021, against 34.9 billion dinars in 2020, according to statistical data published by the Agency for the Promotion of Industry and Innovation (APII) Sunday.
With the exception of the food industry sales, all manufacturing industry sectors have seen their exports increase.
The 13% drop in external sales of food industries is mainly due to modest exports of Tunisia’s olive oil, which represents one of the levers of these industries in the country and the basis of commodity exports in general.
The value of exports of food industries is estimated at 3.290 billion dinars in 2021, against 3.781 billion dinars in 2020.
On the side of increases, the sector of mechanical and electrical industries has achieved the highest value of exports among all sub-sectors of manufacturing industries in Tunisia, that is to say 21.4 billion dinars during the last year, against 17.5 billion dinars in 2020.
With regard to the textile and clothing sector, despite the structural and cyclical difficulties, exports grew 12.7% in value to nearly 7.6 billion dinars in 2021, from 6.7 billion dinars in 2020.
Similarly, the chemical industries sector has experienced a remarkable dynamic in foreign sales, posting a rise of 3.4 billion dinars in 2021 against 2.2 billion dinars in 2020.
The leather and footwear sector saw a considerable recovery, bringing its exports to the threshold of 1,600 MD in 2021, against 1,296 MD in 2020.
Exports of the building materials, ceramics and glass sector have reached 1 billion dinars, against 615 MD in 2020.
On the other hand, the imports of the manufacturing sector grew by 21.2% to 48.9 billion dinars against 40.3 billion dinars in 2020. Therefore, the sector’s trade balance deficit has widened from 5,387 MD in 2020 to 7,188 MD in 2021.
This is due to the increase in the value of industrial imports, according to APII.
On the other hand, investment intentions in the industrial sector fell by 25.8% during the whole year 2021. The value of investment intentions reported to the APII, amounted to 2539.7 MD last year, against 3422.5 MD in 2020.
