Tunisia – Textile and apparel exports grew 16.78% during the first quarter of 2023, to TND 2,626.6 million, the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy said on Wednesday.

In euro terms, the growth of exports in this sector reached 14.61% compared to the same period of 2022, to €788.3 million, or an estimated coverage rate of 145%.

These results exceeded the value of exports achieved in the same period of 2019 (before the COVID-19 pandemic), by 22.11% in dinars (TND 2,151.1 million) and 26.64% in euros (€622.5 million).

Exports went up by 16.72% to 926.4 million dinars in March 2023. In euros, the increase reached 14.38% to €278.2 million.

Trouser exports have shown a growth of 16.99% during the first quarter of 2023 to TND 646.2 million, equivalent to €193.9 million (recording an increase of 14.82% compared to the same period of 2022). Exports of trousers represent 29% of total ready-to-wear clothing exports.

The European Union (EU) countries are the main destination for Tunisian ready-to-wear clothing exports, particularly the French, Italian, German, Belgian, Portuguese and Dutch markets.

Thus, exports to this area reached almost €640.4 million in the first quarter of 2023, up 19.80% compared to 2022 and accounting for 81% of the sector's total exports.

As for Tunisia’s ready-to-wear clothing imports, they went down in value by 51.11% to 58.1 MD and in quantity by 26.26% to 0.8 thousand tonnes compared to the same period of 2022.

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