Tunisia's milk shortage leaves farmers poor and the public angry

Record ID: 1698943

  • Title: Tunisia's milk shortage leaves farmers poor and the public angry
  • Date: 22nd November 2022
  • Summary: KALAAT AL ANDALOUS, TUNISIA (NOVEMBER 11, 2022) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF COWS AT A RANCH TUNISIAN FARMER, MAHER GIZMIR, WALKING HIS COWS TO THE STABLE A COW EATING VARIOUS OF GIZMIR PREPARING FODDER FOR HIS COWS (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) TUNISIAN FARMER, MAHER GIZMIR, SAYING: “Our problem is water. We don't have water to grow grass for cows to eat. We have land to plant, but we don't have water, and fodder is also very expensive. I used to own 50 cows. Now look what I have. Their livelihood has become difficult, and now I'm thinking of selling them.” VARIOUS OF GIZMIR PREPARING FODDER AND GIVING IT TO HIS COWS (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) TUNISIAN FARMER, MAHER GIZMIR, SAYING: “In 2011, I owned 70 cows, and since then, each year the number decreases and decreases until it finally got to 12. Last year, I owned 22 cows, and this year I own 12. I sold 10 cows to be able to provide food for rest.” VARIOUS OF GIZMIR PREPARING THE MILKING MACHINE AND EXTRACTING MILK (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) TUNISIAN FARMER, MAHER GIZMIR, SAYING: “Two years ago, I used to produce about 700 liters of milk per day between morning and evening. Now I can't produce 100 liters per day.” VARIOUS OF MACHINE MILKING COWS GIZMIR POURING MILK IN BOTTLES GIZMIR POURING MILK INTO LARGE CONTAINERS VARIOUS OF MEN CARRYING MILK BOTTLES AND POURING THEM INTO CONTAINERS VARIOUS OF WORKERS AT MILK COLLECTION COMPANY ( SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MANAGER AT A MILK COLLECTION COMPANY, MABROUK LAKHEL, SAYING: “The problems of milk and fodder are faced all over the country. People can't feed cows because of the high cost of the fodder, and the price of milk is very low and does not make a profit. The cost of a liter of milk for a farmer is 1,800 millimeters, and a kilogram of fodder costs the same price. How can you make a profit from that? Poor farmers, for us we used to receive between 40 to 50 thousand liters per day, now we receive only 12 thousand liters, where is the milk?” 16 . VARIOUS OF MILK PRODUCER ENGINEER TESTING MILK QUALITY TUNIS, TUNISIA (NOVEMBER 15, 2022) (REUTERS) SIGN IN ARABIC READING ‘TUNISIAN UNION OF AGRICULTURE AND FISHING' DEPUTY HEAD OF THE AGRICULTURE UNION, ANIS KHERBACHE, WRITING IN HIS OFFICE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) DEPUTY HEAD OF THE AGRICULTURE UNION, ANIS KHERBACHE, SAYING: “Today, the system of raising dairy cows has begun to collapse. Today we have lost more than 30 percent of our herd. Thousands of billions were spent on this system in the least 50 years. If this system crashes, we will go to the simplest solutions, which is importing, and we can’t repair the system for at least four to five years” VARIOUS OF KHERBACHE WORKING AT HIS OFFICE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) DEPUTY HEAD OF THE AGRICULTURE UNION, ANIS KHERBACHE, SAYING: “There is a significant decline in production, we lost about 35 percent of our production, we fell from one million and eight thousand daily production to one million one hundred or two hundred thousand, and today we no longer have adjustment stocks, so if we compare to the previous year in October 2021 we had about 40 million liters of stock - but today we do not have more than 8 million liters, and we consume it daily to adjust the markets from 400 to 500 thousand liters per day, which means that the crisis today will deepen, especially within two weeks." TUNIS, TUNISIA (NOVEMBER 16, 2022) (REUTERS) PEOPLE SHOPPING AT A SUPERMARKET VARIOUS OF EMPTY MILK SHELVES INSIDE A SUPERMARKET (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) TUNISIAN CITIZEN, ABDESSLAM BEN MORAD, SAYING: “The government is absent. This has not happened in Tunisia before. You cannot find milk at the stores. You go to the supermarket. It opens at eight in the morning. After an hour, you do not find anything” VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING ALONG A STREET (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic)TUNISIAN CITIZEN, FAIZA BAOUAB, SAYING: “What a crisis we are living in! If there are no children, we would that there is no problem, as adults can be patient no matter what. It’s not just the milk crisis, there is a sugar crisis, an oil crisis, a vegetable crisis. Potatoes have become 2.4 (Tunisian Dinars) and tomatoes have become 3.8 (Tunisian Dinar).”
  • Embargoed: 6th December 2022 10:01
  • Keywords: Africa North Africa Tunisia agriculture dairy
  • Location: KALAAT AL ANDALOUS, TUNISIA
  • City: KALAAT AL ANDALOUS, TUNISIA
  • Country: Tunisia
  • Topics: Africa,Commodities Markets,Economic Events
  • Reuters ID: LVA001129122112022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Tunisian dairy farmer Maher Gizmir has sold nearly half his cows this year and reduced his daily output by 85 percent, adding to a shortage of milk around the country as a cash-strapped government wrestles with inflation.
    Like many other dairy farmers, Gizmir says he can no longer afford to produce milk at the state-mandated purchase price given his rising outlay on fodder and other goods and services.
    Tunisia, eager to keep prices down for ordinary citizens but also bound by promises to reduce subsidies as it seeks a bailout from the International Monetary Fund, has few options.
    Its inability to resolve the problem has left farmers poorer and consumers fuming, adding to a sense of economic breakdown and government mismanagement in a country where frustration over politics is already simmering.
    "We want water and fodder at low prices and we want the government to raise the price of milk to cover costs. Otherwise I'll leave this profession and sell my cows," said Gizmir, 40, who inherited his farm northwest of Tunis from his father.
    Economic frustrations in Tunisia played into the 2011 revolution that brought democracy - and into apparent support for President Kais Saied last year when he shut down parliament and adopted broad powers in moves his foes called a coup.
    This year other major goods have also periodically disappeared or been rationed in shops, including bread, cooking oil, bottled water, petrol and some medicines.
    Farmers sell their milk to wholesalers at a state-set price of 1.1 dinars ($0.35) per liter. The retail price for consumers is capped at 1.35 dinars a liter.
    At Gizmir's farm, black and white cows shelter under a wooden roof in a concrete shed.
    "A year ago I had 22 cows. Now I only have 12. I sold 10 because I could not cover my costs. I struggle every day and my debts are up to 15,000 dinars," said Gizmir, the farmer, adding he spends 100 dinars a day on fodder to produce 50 liters of milk that he sells for 55 dinars.
    His output has dropped in two years from 700 liters a day to 100 liters a day, he said, and he believes the cows he sold were smuggled by their buyer into neighboring, oil-rich Algeria.
    Milk wholesaler Mabrouk Lakhal in the town of Kalaat Al Andalous near Gizmir's farm said he heard every day from farmers selling their herds. "We used to collect 40,000 liters a day and now we collect only 12,000 liters a day," he said.
    Since seizing most powers last year, President Saied has mostly avoided discussing economics, leaving the details of Tunisia's talks with the IMF to a government he has appointed and publicly blaming hoarders and speculators for shortages.
    However, opposition parties and Tunisia's powerful labor union have warned of a "social explosion" if the government makes further cuts to public spending amid a cost of living crisis that has followed years of economic problems.
    Fodder prices rose globally after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a major agricultural producer, as did energy and water costs after Tunisia reduced subsidies for both since last year to ease a crisis in public finances and assuage foreign lenders.
    A drought has also reduced water supply, adding to farmers' problems.
    The prime minister's office and agriculture ministry declined to comment. Last week Agriculture Minister Mahmoud Hamza said the problem of milk shortages would soon be resolved, without giving details.
    This month Tunisia signed a staff-level agreement with the IMF for a $1.9 billion bailout in return for promised spending cuts including on subsidies and the government may need to enact further energy price rises to finalize the deal.
    In desperate need of budget support to avoid a debt default that ratings agencies have said may happen next year, the government may struggle to subsidize dairy producers as many of them now demand.
    Also facing a furious public, with rapidly growing numbers quitting Tunisia entirely by emigrating illegally to Italy, it is loathe to help farmers by raising prices for consumers and adding to an inflation rate that was 9.2 percent in October.
    "The state seeks to avoid a deeper social crisis and avoid any concerns by increasing the price of milk. But it risks a collapse in the dairy system that contributes to food security and provides thousands of jobs," said Anis Kharbach, deputy head of the Agriculture Union.
    (Production: Jihed Abidellaoui, Maria Semerdjian)
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