Planting of winter grains to be harvested from May 2014 is completed. The northern part of the country, primarily producing cereals, has suffered from lack of rains in December.
However, return of rains in January has been providing vegetative wheat and barley with sufficient moisture for development. Southern part of the country did not experience a period of dryness. In Tunisia crop production varies markedly from year to year depending on the significant rainfall variations, reports FAO.
Below average cereal harvest gathered in 2013
The 2013 grain harvest in Tunisia suffered from insufficient rain during the planting season in late 2012 resulting in decreased wheat and barley planted area by about 25 per cent compared to 2012. The 2013 cereal production reached about 1.3 million tonnes.
At this level, the crop was about 50 per cent lower than last year’s exceptional crop and some 34 per cent lower than the previous five-year average. Most of the grain produced is wheat which in 2013 at about 1 million tonnes recorded a decrease of over 40 per cent compared to last year.
Tunisia relies heavily on grain imports, mainly wheat, even in good production years. Accordingly, cereal import requirements in the current marketing year 2013/14 (July/June) are put at about 3.4 million tonnes, about 20 per cent higher than last year and 23 per cent higher than the five year average.
