Secretary of State for Agricultural Production, Omar Behi announced that this year, a number of citrus processing plants will be established.
Speaking during a visit to the governorate of Nabeul on Friday, he said that his department encourages the processing industries considered as one of the solutions adopted in case of surplus production.
In a statement to TAP, Behi said that the mechanisms adopted by the government to manage the abundance of citrus fruit production, which rose to more than 50% this season, prevented the collapse of prices through domestic market, export and processing.
He adds that his department is working to set up a new strategy for the citrus sector to avoid the problems raised.
He also pointed out that the Agricultural Investment Code, which will come into force on April 1, 2017, includes incentive mechanisms that will strengthen the agricultural sector, provide investors with support totalling 50% of the price of the agricultural machinery they intend to acquire.
In this same connection, the Secretary of State said that a Tunisian investor had launched, for two years, the production of strawberry plants, specifying that the local production reached 1.5 million plants.
The objective is to abandon the importation of these plants, he said. In this context, he pointed out that nearly 18 million plants are imported every year.
In the Dar Chaabane delegation, Behi visited an agricultural farm specialised in cattle fattening and an agricultural processing plant in Tazarka. He also took note of the conditions of the white meat sector by visiting the company of Poultry slaughterhouses in Korba.
© Tunis-Afrique Presse 2017
