The food trade balance posted a 182.7 MTD surplus in July against a 754.8 MTD deficit during the same period in 2017, which helped bring the coverage rate to 106.1%.
Food exports and imports edged up 72.6% and 15.2%, respectively, according to data published by the National Observatory of Agriculture (French: ONAGRI).
This surplus is the result of the rise in the value of exports, mainly olive oil (200.4%), tomatoes (38.3%) and fisheries (29.9%), the same data indicated.
Imports include durum wheat (532.2 thousand tonnes), soft wheat (729.7 thousand tonnes), barley (329.5 thousand tonnes) and milk and by-products (11.3 thousand tonnes).
The rising value of imports is the result of a 176.5% increase in purchases of meat, milk and by-products (63.7%), barley (51.4%) and durum wheat (26.8%), ONAGRI added.
TunisianMonitorOnline (TAP)
