Russian wheat exports to Tunisia surge to over 400,000T in Q1 2023/24

TUNISIA – Tunisia imported 412,000 tons of wheat from Russia in the first half of the 2023/2024 agricultural year (July-December, 50% more than the 278,000 tons exported during the entire 2022/2023 marketing campaign.

This is according to the data analysis center of Rusagrotrans, the country’s largest agricultural forwarder.

The shipment also exceeded a record 306,000 tonnes exported in the 2017/2018 agricultural year, Rusagrotrans’ analytics center noted.

In detail, soft wheat represented 66% of the announced stock, or more than 274,000 tonnes, while the rest is made up of durum wheat. 

Speaking on the subject, Sergei Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister, indicates that this increase in cereal shipments is in line with Tunis’ desire to increase its supply of wheat from Russia.

“ The interest in increasing the supply of our cereals in Tunisia is clear. We are ready for this. Thanks to the work of our farmers and the weather conditions, we had a bumper harvest for the second or even third year in a row.”

Russia is the world’s main exporter of wheat. For the 2023/2024 marketing campaign, the country of the Tsars is seeking to increase its grain shipments to several North African countries.

Barley exports to Tunisia grew to 248,000 tonnes in July-December and far exceeded the figure of 160,000 tonnes for all of the 2022/2023 agricultural year.

The center also noted that Russian barley exports to Tunisia reached a record of more than 510,000 tonnes in the 2020/2021 agricultural year, and “it could be reached” this season.

In Tunisia, wheat and barley are the main cultivated cereals. However, the country has been experiencing a prolonged period of drought for 5 years, which is affecting the performance of its productive system. 

According to USDA data, the country should import a total stock of 2.2 million tonnes of wheat (hard and soft) in 2023/2024 to meet its consumption, which averages around 3 million tonnes per year.

However, recently, Tunisia’s Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries unveiled a new development strategy that aims to increase the area devoted to cereal growing to 1.2 million hectares by 2035 against an average area of less than 900,000 hectares currently.

The move is in line with the government’s strategy to boost cereal production in a push to halt imports by 2035.

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