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Noura roams the center of Tunis in search of milk. “When I find it, I can’t buy more than two bricks.
According to official data, the Tunisian market absorbs 1.8 million liters daily, with production reaching up to 1.2 million.
“Milk is essential, especially for our children,” Noura Bchini, a housewife in her 50s, told AFP. In the morning we say we’ll get it, in the afternoon we’ll have more.
This shortfall was announced at the end of October by a supermarket saying, “Two bricks of milk per citizen.
Farmer Mohamed Garsalawi of the village of El Battan, 40 km west of Tunis, leans against a milking machine and has to sell four cows to buy fodder and feed 20 cows over the next few months. I explained that it did not.
On his farm, the 65-year-old farmer shows bills for hay, barley, or corn and soy supplements.
The price of a 50 kg bag of supplements has increased eightfold in ten years to reach 81 dinars (24 euros).
“Why is there a shortage of milk? Because the cows are not being fed as much as they need,” he told AFP.
“I’m at a loss”
One cow can only produce 12 milk out of 30 liters of milk per day.
Gharsallaoui, a passionate farmer who started with a single cow 50 years ago, is saddened to see her herd die.
“This is the cow that has supported my family,” says the father of four adult children. I have to.
The Tunisian Union of Agriculture and Fisheries (Utap) sounded the alarm a year ago “when farmers started selling milk and were at a loss”.
“The price of animal feed has risen by 30-40% in a year and is going crazy. This is related to the international situation, especially the war in Ukraine,” said Tunisia as a major importer. increased the price of cereals, he said. Spokesperson Anis Kharbeche.
He is concerned about the month of Ramadan, which begins around March 22. “During that time, milk consumption will increase, with shortages reaching 1 million liters per day.
These difficulties have been exacerbated by Tunisia’s drought, with dams up to 30% filled, according to Utap.
“Raw grass”
To limit losses, many farmers are forced to sell some of their livestock to local butchers or neighboring Algerian breeders.
According to Utap, Tunisian cattle herds are down 30% in 2022.
In the face of this “slow collapse”, the country that helped set up the milk sector after independence (1956) must take the lead, Kharbeche said, noting that Tunisia’s I remembered that I was able to export milk.
For now, the state is content with the 2023 Finance Act to raise import taxes on milk powder at the risk of competing with domestic production.
Also, President Kais Said’s recent statements attribute unconfirmed problems in the sector to ‘speculators’ and have not reassured farmers.
The solution for Utap is a ‘variable price’ applied by the country to the purchase of milk, which fluctuates according to the price of feed. And we need to “support farmers for fresh grass production” with strategies that reprocess wastewater and help buy nutritional supplements.
Milk is just one of the products affected by sporadic shortages in recent months, along with coffee, sugar and oil.
Experts explain them by the Tunisian state’s lack of liquidity, which has a monopoly on supplies of subsidized basic products. The heavily indebted country has been negotiating for months about a $2 billion loan with the IMF.
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