Tunisia: African Development Bank Group pledges $87 million to support grain production | African Development Bank Group

Tunisia will receive an $87.1 million loan from the African Development Bank Group to scale up grain production, which has declined in recent years due to climate change-induced drought. The Tunisian Minister of Economy and Planning Samir Saïed and the Deputy Director General of the African Development Bank Group for North Africa, Malinne Blomberg, signed the loan agreement in Tunis on Wednesday, July 19, 2023.

Over the past decade, Tunisia has harvested an average of 1.5 million tons of grain against a national consumption requirement of 3.4 million tons. The financing of the banking group enables the Tunisian government to implement the support project for the grain sector and sustainable development. The project aims to improve grain productivity and increase storage capacity. It will also support rail transport for grains, secure supplies and strengthen the capacity of key stakeholders to strengthen resilience to external shocks and climate change.

The implementation of the project will allow Tunisia to increase production of durum wheat by 1.6 million quintals, barley by 1.2 million quintals, vegetable oil by 18,000 quintals and cuckoo by 42,000 quintals. It will also help the country reduce post-harvest and storage losses, saving about 115,000 quintals of grain.

Ms Blomberg said: “The project for which we signed today’s Memorandum of Understanding will consolidate the activities of the Emergency Food Security Support Project, approved as part of the African Emergency Food Production Facility in October 2022. It is part of the National Pact on Food and Agriculture Production submitted by Tunisia at the Dakar 2 Food Summit in January.”

Minister Saïed emphasized the importance of the project for inclusive and sustainable investments in the grain sector. He said: “The project allows us to increase strategic grain storage to meet the three-month requirement instead of two through the renovation and modernization of the port silos in Radès and Bizerte, the construction of a new silo in Djebel Djelloud and the restart of grain transport by rail.”

Like many other countries, Tunisia is facing a food crisis due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has caused the price of grains, especially wheat, to rise worldwide. The country has also experienced a drastic drop in wheat production due to extreme drought over the past five years, according to the Tunisian Ministry of Agriculture. Checkers are at their lowest level in the last 10 years. The Agriculture Ministry also recently announced that the grain harvest in 2023 would be only about 250,000 tons, much lower than last year’s 750,000 tons, and that the country would have to import 95 percent of its grain needs.

The implementation of the project will increase food security, especially for vulnerable populations whose diets rely heavily on cereal-based products. The project will also benefit the food processing value chain (flour mills, bakeries, confectioners, etc.) and the production of animal feed.

Ms Blomberg confirmed the Bank Group’s commitment to support the project and its implementation, taking into account the expected impact on the food security of the population.

Tunisia receives multiple support from the Bank Group to develop its agricultural sector. In October 2022, the Bank approved $80 million in emergency food aid for the country. The support project for inclusive and sustainable development of the cereals sector will use this experience to deepen the partnership between the Tunisian government and the African Development Bank. It will help strengthen complementarity with the interventions of other donors, including the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Construction and Development and the World Bank for the Grains Sector and Sustainable Development Support Project.