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May 24, 2023

Tunisia: Handicraft exports increase by more than 27% in 2022

Olive wood, textile ceramics, traditional clothing, plant fibre products, mosaics, wrought iron, leather goods, silverware, blown glass, aromatherapy and perfumes are at the forefront of traditional

Olive wood, textile ceramics, traditional clothing, plant fibre products, mosaics, wrought iron, leather goods, silverware, blown glass, aromatherapy and perfumes are at the forefront of traditional export oriented crafts in 2022

Tunisia - The handicrafts sector's export revenues amounted to 148.6 million dinars in 2022, with a growth rate of more than 27 percent compared to 2021, while the sector's share in Tunisia's total exports is estimated at 2 percent in 2022, the CEO of the Export Promotion Centre, Mourad Ben Hassine, said on Monday.

He was speaking on the sidelines of the conclusion of a series of sectoral meetings aimed at developing the export apparatus, at a gathering of representatives of the handicraft sector.

Commenting on the sector's export performance, Ben Hassine said that the number of parcels sent by the Tunisian post amounted to 11,886 parcels sent to some 87 countries, valued at 3.2 million dinars.

Olive wood, textile ceramics, traditional clothing, plant fibre products, mosaics, wrought iron, leather goods, silverware, blown glass, aromatherapy and perfumes are at the forefront of traditional export oriented crafts in 2022.

Tunisia's top ten markets for the export of traditional industry products, according to the indicators of the National Board of Handicrafts for the year 2022, in order of importance, are the United States of America, France, Italy, Qatar, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Greece, Canada and Libya, according to a statement issued by CEPEX on Tuesday.

The handicraft sector contributes 5% to the Gross Domestic Product and has 300,000 artisans and 2,000 companies, including 650 exporting companies, providing 6,000 jobs a year in 76 activities.

During the tenth sectoral meeting, artisans and actors in the handicrafts sector called for a special export development programme, including the promotion and encouragement of innovation and training, and the provision of technical and financial support mechanisms.

Participants in the meeting, including representatives of relevant institutions, organisations, support structures and civil society, also stressed the need to strengthen public-private partnership in the field of training in the sector and to reclassify export complexes as craft enterprises in order to facilitate their access to various technical and financial incentives for exporting.

They called for speeding up the activation of the decisions of the Cabinet meeting on the handicraft sector held on March 16.

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