TUNISIA: The rate of coverage of imports by exports in the food trade balance recorded a 113% improvement in the first eight months of 2015, against 56.3% during the same period last year.
The food trade has contributed, during this period, to the 4.1 points improvement in the rate of coverage of imports by exports in the trade balance to 68.1% against 64% excluding food, according to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries. The food trade balance has recorded a financial surplus of 322.1 MTD, against a deficit of 947.8 MTD, during the eight months of 2014.
The improvement of the coverage of the food balance is due to the 130.7% growth of food exports against 15.1% for imports, thanks to record revenues of olive oil which accounted for 57% of the overall exports against 17% during the same period in 2014.
Note that 286,000 tons (including 15,600 tons of packaged and 30,000 tons of organic) of olive oil were exported from November 1, 2014 to August 31, 2015, with record revenues of 1,801 MTD while in eight months of 2015, these revenues have increased eightfold compared to the same period of 2014, reaching 1,596.3 MTD.
Exports of olive oil as part of the annual quota granted by the EU have reached 53.5 thousand tons, allowing also to benefit from an 11% price improvement (6.1d / kg against 5.5d / kg) until the end of August.
Dates export rose 25% to 74,000 tons and revenues of about 330 MD with the conquest of 70 markets including Morocco, France, Italy, the USA and Malaysia, besides the improvement of the revenues of citrus, pasta and preparations of vegetables and fruits by 11%, 23% and 45%, respectively.
