Tarek amara

TUNIS, (Reuters) – Tunisia, which has been exporting phosphate for 11 years, is now resuming these exports. It expects more than 300,000.0 tonnes to be shipped this year because of a sharp rise in global demand. The company’s senior officials told Reuters Tuesday that they also anticipate shipping at least 600,000.000 tonnes next year.

This North African country is currently in its most severe financial crisis and seeks to recover its status as an export leader to benefit from sharp increases in fertilizer prices resulting from the conflict in Ukraine.

According to the official, Tunisia is in high demand by countries like Brazil, France, Indonesia, Pakistan and Brazil.

“With sufficient stock for our local customers, export will be accelerated and we expect to achieve 300,000 to 600,000 tones this year. This is comparable to 2010,” he stated.

Tunisia once was one of the top producers of phosphate minerals in the world. However, its market share dropped after 2011.

Since then, strikes and protests have caused massive losses and cut down on production.

The first quarter 2022 saw a doubled increase in phosphate production by Tunisia to 1.3million tonnes, as compared with the previous year.

Officials told Reuters that the state company Gasfa Phosphate aims at producing 5.5 million tonnes this year, compared with 3.7 million tonnes in 2013.