🇹🇳TunisiaNorth Africa
Tunisia's food trade surplus grows by 29.65% by March 2026, offsetting overall trade deficit
via Business News2 min read
Tunisia's food trade balance recorded a surplus of 798.3 million dinars by the end of March 2026, a 29.65% increase compared to the same period in the previous year, according to the National Observatory of Agriculture Onagri. The coverage rate improved from 134.8% to 139.6%. This surplus was driven by a 17.9% rise in food exports, notably olive oil exports which increased by 38.1%, despite a 13.9% increase in food imports, including a 7.7% rise in cereal imports. Export prices for olive oil, tomatoes, and citrus fruits decreased by 3.6%, 18.3%, and 6.7% respectively, while prices for fishery products and dates increased by 6.6% and 3.2%. Import prices for durum wheat, soft wheat, and corn decreased by 15.6%, 9.9%, and 7.8% respectively, though barley prices rose by 3.4%. Sugar prices increased by 30.4%, while vegetable oil prices fell by 1% and milk and dairy product prices decreased by 7.8%. The food trade surplus helped mitigate the overall trade deficit, which worsened by 3.62% to -5.23 billion dinars by the end of March 2026, as reported by the National Institute of Statistics INS. Food imports constituted 9.4% of total imports, and food exports accounted for 17.3% of total exports. Onagri highlighted that the food trade surplus contributed 15.3% to offsetting the overall trade deficit.
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This summary was AI-generated from a story originally published by Business News.
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