The food trade balance posted a deficit of 378.6 million dinars (MD) in February compared to 180.6 MD in the same period last year, the National Observatory of Agriculture (French: ONAGRI said onWednesday. The coverage rate stood at 74.6% against 83.3% in 2021.
The share of the food trade balance deficit in the overall trade balance deficit increased by 4.9 percentage points compared to the same period last year, going from 9.5% up to 14.5%, the ONAGRI said in its monthly note “Food Trade Balance Until late February 2022.”
Food exports edged up 23.9%, while imports posted a 38.2% rise in value. The deficit is essentially the result of an increase in the pace of imports of grain (+32.0%), sugar (+236.5%) and vegetable oils (+119.6%) despite higher olive oil exports (+48.9%).
Average olive oil export prices improved significantly (10.79 DT/kg), that is up 41.1% on last year. Citrus prices followed suit, posting an upward trend (+ 6.7%). Meanwhile, prices of fisheries, tomatoes and dates dropped 18.5%, 17.9% and 9.8%, respectively.
Import prices of grain (durum wheat, common wheat, barley and maize) rose 34% to 97% compared to the previous year. Grain prices increased 97.1% for durum wheat, 44.2% for soft wheat, 57%) for barley and 34.2 %) for maize.
These prices have edged up since July 2021. The impact of the Russia-Ukraine war has not been felt yet, ONAGRI said.
Imports of meat, potatoes, sugar and vegetable oils increased significantly by late February. An upward trend was seen in the prices of vegetable oils (+95.3%), sugar
(+83.3%), meat (+75%) and milk and derivatives (+23.5%) , while potatoe prices dropped 5.1%.
