2023-11-21 09:44:57
The agri-food industry is a vital, essential and strategic sector. Firstly because it contributes to the country’s food security, but also because it allows agricultural production to be enhanced. Consolidating its economic weight inevitably involves the internationalization of the companies operating there and a policy promoting exports. With numerous free trade agreements to its credit, Tunisia has every chance of getting this sector off the ground and taking it to a higher level.
Met on the sidelines of the international forum which was recently held on the theme “International partnership, a lever for development of the agri-food sector in Tunisia and in the world”, on the occasion of the first edition of the Agrobusiness exhibition Medafrica Expo, Hamida Belgaied, Director General of Food Industries at the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, emphasized the importance of the internationalization of food companies established in Tunisia.
An economic weight incontestable
The official stressed that this industry is among the strategic sectors, given its contribution to the safety of food products as well as the food security of the country. Indeed, the food industry adds value to agricultural products and reduces the rate of their loss, particularly on the farm. It is a sector which contributes significantly to regional development by promoting local agricultural production and which facilitates access for local products to local and international markets, she maintains.
The agri-food industry is also a strategic sector, because it represents an indisputable economic weight: it contributes 3.3% to GDP, 8% of exports of goods and 15% of industrial jobs. It also accounts for 25% of investments in manufacturing industries. The agri-food sector covers, in fact, a wide range of activities and sub-sectors, such as the manufacture of oils and bodies, meat processing, production of cereals and derivatives… It is a capital-intensive industry which has a thousand companies employing more than ten people each and which attract foreign investment (26% of projects are with foreign capital).
Barriers remain
Belgaied added that the international partnership can have a leverage effect on the sector. She specified that companies established in Tunisia, which aspire to develop and grow, need to internationalize. They must, therefore, focus on other markets, particularly African ones, and adopt export strategies to do so.
“Tunisia is a small economy. For the company to develop and grow, it should move towards foreign markets. Therefore, any company wanting to grow and grow must focus on export, particularly to African countries,” she said.
But to succeed in their breakthrough into African markets, Tunisian companies are required, first, to comply with the regulatory requirements and health standards imposed by the destination countries.
“To be able to export to African countries or neighboring countries, Tunisian companies must meet the official regulatory requirements of the countries, but also the requirements of customers, by adapting the offer to the destination market and meeting international standards, in terms of nutritional quality, safety, carbon footprint…”, she continued.
She specified that Tunisia, as a signatory to several free trade agreements, enjoys several advantages allowing it to access these markets. “We must first consolidate our presence on our traditional market which is the European Union. But we have signed other agreements that concern African markets, such as Comesa or Zlecaf. These preferential agreements constitute opportunities for companies established in Tunisia. We still need to overcome the difficulties and find solutions to logistical problems, the exorbitant cost of transport and financing,” she indicated, while adding that controlling the cost of logistics remains a priority, in order to maintain the competitiveness of Tunisian products which compete with similar products from other countries.
Partnerships win-win, keystone of success
For her part, Lilia Hachem Naass, head of the Middle East North Africa office at the International Trade Center, underlined, in a statement to The Pressthat international partnerships can be beneficial for the sector to the extent that they make it possible to strengthen collaboration, sharing of experiences and know-how between countries, but also to promote investment and diversify the markets of export as well for Tunisia and for African countries. According to the expert, Tunisia can benefit from potential win-win partnerships which can have the objective of exchanging know-how between African countries.
“Tunisia can find other sources of supply of raw materials and basic products. It can also attract investments for the processing of products on site. Certainly, there are enormous partnership opportunities that might strengthen this collaboration and joint work between different African countries, especially since all countries are committed to operationalizing the continental free trade area which offers all businesses an open continental market, without restrictions and without customs duties for the majority of products,” she explained.
She added that several difficulties still remain and stand as obstacles to the realization of these partnerships, such as logistics, transport and the normative constraints required by Tunisia. ”There is potential, but it is not easy. And we must start, as with this forum, to know each other, to have more information on what is produced, what can be imported, and to detect all the obstacles and all the barriers that exist.
We need to see how we can work together between governments, institutions, and private sectors in order to remove these obstacles and take full advantage of this potential for integration at the African level,” she concluded.
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