Ramadan Begins Today, Yet Basic Food Items Remain Scarce on the Market
The shortage continues to hurt both consumers and traders: some can no longer find essential products, while others see their sales and profits shrink.
The Situation on the Ground
In one of the corner shops of El Manar—the place people usually turn to when items are missing elsewhere—Adel Rebah, a retailer, listed the products that have been in short supply for a while:
“The items in shortage are tea, sugar, semolina, flour, and butter. In fact, flour was available until a few days ago, but now it’s missing,” he said, surprised.
Mohamed Ali Ayari, a seller of agro‑food products, explained which goods are currently available and which are not:
“I consider a product ‘available’ when it appears on the order list.
For us general‑food merchants, we place orders through an app that regularly updates the list of available items.
Flour has not been on the order list for two weeks now, and the same goes for butter and tea. There are even rumors of a lasting shortage of black tea,” he added.
Conditional Sales
Ayari also noted that butter deliveries have been disrupted since the floods:
“We have only received one bulk carton of five kg since then.”
Regarding sugar, he explained that it is still technically available, but suppliers impose conditional sales:
“Suppliers force us to buy a 50‑kg bag of sugar for any purchase exceeding roughly 400–500 dinars.
Consequently, small traders can only obtain sugar if they are willing to spend a lot, turning it into a privilege for the highest bidders.”
Consumers Adapt, Traders Struggle
The ongoing commercial strain has become so normalized that many consumers no longer question it. Malek, a nurse, shared his experience:
“At the start of the shortages, my wife and I would rush to the supermarket first thing in the morning to grab sugar or sealed butter.
Then we gave up. If we find what we need, great; if not, it’s just the way it is.”
Double Trouble for Small Retailers
For Sameh Chaouachi, a retailer of agro‑food products, the scarcity directly impacts both sales and supply chains:
“Retailers are already heavily out‑competed by supermarkets, which take the lion’s share of weekly and monthly supplies.
Supermarkets usually handle the bulk of employees’ grocery lists, leaving us with only last‑minute, small‑scale purchases.
When staples like sugar, butter, Turkish coffee, rice, and many others are missing, customers simply stop buying. Some customers abandon several items just because one of the products they want isn’t available,” she said, frustrated.
On the supply side, she added:
“Suppliers don’t want to dispatch a driver for a single small order, so they enforce conditional sales, forcing us to buy other items together with the product we actually need.”
The End of Subsidised Oil
Among the most sought‑after items for middle‑income Tunisians is subsidised cooking oil. According to Ayari, it has been unavailable for one and a half years. Rebah confirmed he hasn’t sold or received subsidised oil for three or four years:
“It’s completely normal to stop selling oil that sells for only nine hundred millimes per litre. No supplier wants to deal with such low margins. Moreover, nobody would buy vegetable oil if its price keeps climbing toward five dinars per litre,” noted Sameh.
What Remains Available
Despite the overall scarcity, some sectors—especially pastry shops—still manage to operate:
- They continue to offer butter‑rich delicacies at inflated prices.
- Sugar and flour are present in cakes, traditional sweets, and other baked goods.
- Tea is brewed daily to meet the expectations of café and tea‑room patrons.
A Call for Commercial Transparency
The lack of basic food items on the market raises serious questions about commercial transparency, a principle that should be upheld without exception.
Read also: E200 – a potentially carcinogenic food additive
Source: La Presse
