As part of the applied research, the GICA continued trials on seasonal tomato varieties that began in 2016. In 2020, the GICA agronomic team carried out 13 varietal tomato trials across the main production regions.
The area sown with seasonal tomatoes for the year 2020 is about 16500 ha against 17700 ha in 2019. The agronomic yield having increased by 16% compared to last year from 60T/ha to 70T/ha, the production of seasonal tomatoes increases in turn to reach 1.20 million tons against 1.10 million tons in 2019, recording an increase of 9%.
On the industrial level, the tomato campaign 2020 ended with the processing of nearly 961 thousand tons of fresh tomatoes, thus exceeding the last record of 930 thousand tons recorded in 2015.
Tomato processing is carried out by 26 canneries with a total processing capacity of 36 thousand tons of fresh tomatoes per day.
The following is the distribution of the quantities of fresh tomatoes processed by region in 2020:
The production of Tomato paste also reached a record 143 thousand tons from the processing of 930 thousand tons of fresh tomatoes.
The production of canned tomatoes (peeled, crushed, cubed, sauces, coulis, etc.) is estimated at 20 thousand tons (resulting from the processing of 30 thousand tons of fresh tomatoes).
In terms of availability of Tomato paste, the 2020 season reached a record with a volume of nearly 160 thousand tons (17 thousand tons stock report carried over from the 2019 season and 143 thousand tons production 2020). Taking into account the average annual consumption of tomato paste estimated at 100 thousand tons, the campaign generated a large surplus.
Globally, industrial tomato production for the 2020 season is estimated at 38.282 million tons (including 17.436 million tons in the countries of the International Mediterranean Tomato Association ”AMITOM”) against 37.383 million tons manufactured during the 2019 season (including 17.452 million tons at AMITOM level).
In 2020, Tunisia is ranked tenth in the world in terms of industrial tomato production
Tags: 2020, AMITOM, campagne, DCT, production, record, tomate, transformation
