The QUALIMED project “The quality and food safety label for agri-food products from the Mediterranean Basin” funded by the European Commission is part of the Italy-Tunisia Transboundary Cooperation 2007-2013. To « Promote economic, social, institutional and cultural integration between Sicilian and Tunisian territories by supporting a process of sustainable development around a pole of cross-border cooperation. The overall objective of the QUALIMED project is the consolidation and development of commercial exchanges of agri-food products from the integrated Italian-Tunisian sectors and their sale on international markets through the use of a joint distinctive sign of quality “QUALIMED”.


The products concerned by the QUALIMED label are :

  • Olive oil
  • Table olives
  • Dried tomatoes
  • Semi-preserved Sardines/anchovies (salted/marinated)
  • Grape juice
    Project Partners :
  • Provence of Trapani, Sicily – Italy
  • COSVAP: Sicilian Consortium for the Valorization of Fish Catch – Fishing Productive
    District, Sicily – Italy
  • Western Sicily Wine District Consortium, Sicily – Italy
  • Consortium of the olive sector, Sicily – Italy
  • GICA: Tunisian group for canned food industries Tunis – Tunisia
  • UTAP: Tunisian Union of Agriculture and Fisheries, Tunis – Tunisia
  • CTAA: Technical Centre for Food Processing, Tunis – Tunisia
  • IRVT: Veterinary Research Institute of Tunisia, Tunis – Tunisia


Market Access Project for Agri-Food and Local Products (PAMPAT1)


Between 2013 and 2019 the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO),in collaboration with the Tunisian Ministry of Industry and SMEs and the Ministry of Agriculture, has implemented the first phase of the Market Access Project for Agro-Food Products and Local Products (PAMPAT1) with funding of 5 million Swiss francs from the
State Secretariat for Economic Affairs of the Swiss Confederation (SECO).
The PAMPAT approach focuses on the development of agro-industrial value chains from upstream to downstream, the promotion of origin-linked quality labels as well as communication and marketing to ensure the influence of local products on both national and international markets.
In coordination with GICA and DGIAA, the PAMPAT I project worked on the promotion of the quality sign for Harissa with the “Food Quality Label Tunisia” Thanks to this project, the Harissa companies and more than 300 pepper suppliers were supported to comply with the label’s requirements. In 2019, there are eight companies (and nine brands) of the Harissa certified Food Quality Label. In addition, GICA, within the framework of this project, with the labelled companies and with the support of PAMPAT have set up a promotional programme for “Tunisian Harissa” to make this typically Tunisian product known to the general public in several European
countries as well as in the United States.
Benefits of PAMPAT 1:

  • Eight labelled companies and nine FQL harissa brands
  • A price increase of up to 25% for high quality chilli peppers
  • Equipping the GICA laboratory with capsaicin analyses to define the level of the piquancy
    of the harissa
  • Setting up a panel of expert tasters for harissa
  • Submission of a file for the inscription of harissa as a UNESCO intangible heritage site