President of the Republic, Kaïs Saïed, Receives Minister of Agriculture
The President of the Republic, Kaïs Saïed, received Mr. Ezeddine Ben Cheikh, Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources, and Fisheries, yesterday, October 21, at the Carthage Palace.
Exceptional Harvest
At the beginning of the meeting, the Head of State mentioned the exceptional harvest recorded this year for dates, cereals, olive oil, and several other crops, after God blessed Tunisia with beneficial rains throughout the territory, thus ending years of drought that had strongly affected national food security.
Export Markets and Fraternal Relations
The President of the Republic emphasized that while Tunisia is working to open new markets for the export of its dates, an irresponsible statement was published, requiring its author to be held accountable, as it contains an unjustified exclusion of a brotherly country. "Our brothers will always be our brothers," he affirmed. "How can a brother exclude his brother, even in case of differences of opinion or positions? Our choices are ours, and no one has to interfere with them. But the bonds of brotherhood are our history, and even more so, our common destiny, in mutual respect."
Record Olive Oil Harvest
Regarding the record olive oil harvest, the President of the Republic gave instructions to pay particular attention to small farmers, especially with regard to grinding, storage, and simplifying access to preferential rate credits. He noted that the storage capacity of the National Oil Office has not increased as it should have between last year and this year, calling for increased efforts to enable this office - and other public establishments - to fully regain the roles for which they were created.
Conquering New Markets
Finally, like the date sector, the President of the Republic insisted on the need to work on conquering new export markets for olive oil, specifying that several countries in Latin America and Asia have already expressed their willingness to import it. He also encouraged the packaging of oil in Tunisia, so that its true country of origin is known, proudly bearing the flag of our dear homeland.
