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Tunisia’s manufacturing export capacity is one of most significant across the Arab World. As of 2009, there were 5,756 companies with more than 10 employees in the Tunisian manufacturing sector. More than half of these companies operated in two industries: textiles and clothing (36 percent) and food (18 percent). Approximately 48 percent of all manufacturing firms produce exclusively for export.

Textile and clothing exports dominate the market in terms of sheer numbers as well as in terms of foreign ownership. Of the more than 1,184 totally foreign-owned companies active in manufacturing, more than half (640) are classified as textiles and clothing industries. Foreign capital enterprises that exclusively export are also highly concentrated in the textiles and clothing industry.
 

But while textile and clothing industries dominate export, other industries also show an upward trend in export share (see Table 1).  

Table 1: Share of Manufacturing Exports by Industry, 2004–08 (Data in %)

MAGR= Mean Annual Growth Rate

For example, electric and electronic exports represented more than one-fifth of total manufacturing exports in 2008, with an annual average growth rate of 23 percent from 2004–08 (See Table )1. Over the same period, exports of textiles and clothing increased at a modest average annual rate of 4 percent. At the same time, other industries such as chemicals, and mechanical and metallurgical, also demonstrated high export average growth rates and increased export shares in total manufacturing exports.

Europe has long been the primary market for Tunisia’s exports, although shifts are occurring in export product destinations. In 2010, for example, the European Union (EU) purchased 73 percent of Tunisia’s exports; of the top-10 destinations for merchandise exports, seven were in Europe, with France and Italy alone absorbing more than half of the total. Three non-EU destinations—Algeria, Libya, and the United States—are among the top-10 destinations. Nonetheless, Tunisia has diversified its export markets somewhat in recent years; the EU’s share of total exports fell 10 percentage points from its peak of 83 percent in 2004.

Continued diversification in both production and markets seems to be the trend Tunisia is following today.

Sofiane Ghali is a full professor of economics and Dean of the Higher School of Economic and Commercial Sciences of Tunis (ESSECT, University of Tunis). His fields of specialization are in the areas of industrial organizations and international economics. He has published papers in internationally refereed journals and contributed to several studies for Tunisian national agencies and organizations such as the ITCEQ and IACE, and international organizations like the World Bank, OECD, EIB, FEMISE, ERF, and GDN. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics.

Sami Rezgui is a full professor at the University of Manouba in Tunisia. He is specialized in the areas of macroeconomic policies, international economics, industrial economics and innovation policy. He is author of several research papers published in international journals and he is also consultant and contributor to various reports for international agencies (OECD, World Bank, Femise, Mediterranean Institute) and national institutions (Institute of quantitative Studies, Arab Institute of Business Managers, Ministry of Trade, Investment Agency Promotion). He Holds a Ph.D. in Economics.