Timber farmers are facing marketing fears with declining merchant purchases

Timber markets in Tunisia are dominated by growing fears of a major marketing crisis for the new crop as the harvest season kicks off on November 5, 2026. Producers are facing difficulties linked to a decline in the willingness of local traders to buy, coupled with unclear demand and a reduction in expected export quotas towards the Moroccan market, which is the main destination for Tunisian products.

Purchase rates have declined in key production areas especially in the state of Kébili, where merchants' purchases have been limited to less than 1% of the crop so far, compared with normal rates exceeding 30% during such a period of each season. This recession is accompanied by a marked decline in the opening of collection centres and wholesale shops, which threatens to damage large quantities of palm trees that are still on their heads as a result of funding difficulties and warnings of market volatility.

Farmer and source Hamad Hamadi from a local delegation in Dous, Kébili state, confirmed that the fixed reference price is theoretical and cannot be applied in practice because it acquires precise technical specifications not available in the entire crop on offer, stressing that final prices remain subject to supply and demand regulations. For his part, farmer Omar Ben Ali explained that the production is achieved by a purely individual effort of peasants amid the absence of actual marketing support, considering that the reference price does not exceed the ink in which it was written, and expressing his deep concern about the delay in determining the import quotas of Tunisian tulips in Morocco and its direct impact on sales.

The Ministry of Agriculture estimates that the tomato harvest for the 2026-2027 season will be around 354,000 tonnes, a decrease of 12.4% compared to the production volume recorded during the previous season of 404 thousand tonnes. Representatives of the ministry during a parliamentary session set a reference price at 5.2 dinars per kilogram under specific conditions, affirming that the final price is determined by the principle of supply and demand in the market, at a time when farmers see that the current production figures represent an ordinary crop compared to last year.

The professional and agricultural communities in the southern regions of Tunisia are waiting for developments in the Moroccan market to decide the fate of export operations, as well as for interventions to facilitate the financing of collectors to save the remaining sick crops and avoid heavy financial losses for producers.