Tunisia’s foreign trade in May 2020 witnessed a sharp 37.1 percent drop year-on-year, following the COVID-19 outbreak, the National Institute of Statistics (INS) said.
This fall impacted the textile, clothing and leather sector and the mechanical and electrical industries sector, which witnessed respectively a 32.4 percent and 49.8 percent drop in exports.
Exports of “other manufacturing industries” contracted by 49.6 percent, those of mining, phosphates, and derivatives by 17.8 percent and those of energy by 8.4 percent.
This decline is attributed to the drop at the levels of energy (49.3 percent), capital goods (41.8 percent), raw materials and semi-finished products (37.1 percent), consumer goods (33.5 percent) as well as mining and phosphate products with a rate of 77.9 percent.
On the other hand, exports by the agriculture and agro-food industries sector grew by 16.4 percent.
Meanwhile, Tunisia's exports of agricultural and food products to Libya until April declined by 17.5 percent, according to the Tunisian Observatory of Agriculture. It attributed this to the unprecedented challenges facing trade during the pandemic.
The export value of sea products to Libya dropped by circa TND6.3 million, an estimate of 82.1 percent, in comparison to 2019, and vegetables by 17.2 percent, at a value of TND1.2 million.
During the same period, Tunisian grain exports to Libya rose by 167.5 percent, around TND2.6 million.
Grains, vegetables, and sea fishing products represent 6.5 percent of total exports to Libya.
