The quantities of cereals collected during the 2023 season have fallen by 60% compared with 2022, i.e. 2.7 million quintals compared with 7.5 million quintals recorded last year, Saloua Ben Hadid Zouari, Director of Development and Quality at the Cereals Office, said on Friday.

Speaking at the regular press conference held by the Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries, she said that this decline was due to the drought recorded during the main cereal production phases, which had an impact on production volumes, adding that the rainfall recorded at the beginning of June 2023 also had an impact on cereal quality.

In the 2023 season, 2,596,227 quintals of durum wheat were harvested, compared with 62,060 quintals of common wheat and 4,600 quintals of barley. The highest quantities of cereals collected were recorded in the governorates of Bizerte (35%), followed by Béja (25%), Kairouan (14%) and Jendouba (11.5%).

On the other hand, these quantities were down in the governorates of Siliana, Kef and Zaghouan. The main exceptional measures taken for the 2023-2024 agricultural season concern the supply of 700,000 quintals of seeds to farmers for the 2023-2024 season, and the creation of a strategic stock of 500,000 quintals of durum wheat to meet seed requirements for the 2024-2025 season.

The aim is also to increase cereal prices at the time of production, by introducing an increase in the short-term incentive premium of 10 dinars for all types of cereal, which has had a financial impact of 3 million dinars (MD), as well as an increase in premiums and margins for collectors, which (increase) has had a financial impact of 4.2MD.

Similarly, it was decided to revise the grading scale in favour of cereal producers, ignoring most of the quality-related elements adopted in the current scale at the time of purchase.

This measure will be adopted exceptionally for this season, the official added, pointing out that the financial impact of this measure is 9MD.

In addition, compensation for damage and rescheduling of debts, as well as the assumption by the State of 3 points of the interest rate, during the financing of the 2022-2023 field crop season, i.e. seasonal credits of 89.138 MD divided between 82.813 MD from the Banque Nationale de l'Agriculture (BNA) and 6.325 MD from the Banque Tunisienne de Solidarité (BTS).

Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse