Tunisia increases grain harvest, expects imports to drop

Tunisia’s grain harvest increased to 2.34 million tonnes from 1.3 million tonnes last year, which will reduce its grain imports sharply in 2015, the government said on Tuesday.

The production figures were announced by the agriculture ministry. Nizar Ayari, an official in the state office of grains, said Tunisia’s imports of cereals will decline by 80 percent in 2015.

Tunisia devotes most of its fertile irrigated farmland to durum wheat, while it imports mainly soft wheat and barley.

Earlier this year, the agriculture minister told Reuters the domestic harvest would improve because of more rain by comparison with a dry 2013.

A total of 1.2 million hectares were planted with grain this year. Farming accounts for about 10 percent of Tunisia’s gross domestic product.