The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has confirmed a new €6.2 million loan to the Compagnie Générale des Industries Alimentaires (COGIA) to help strengthen the olive farming sector in Tunisia.
COGIA, one of the country’s major food manufacturers, will use those funds to foster production, bottling and exports. In support of the country’s exports, there have been six EBRD-funded projects for olive growing in Tunisia since 2017.
Since the start of its operations in Tunisia in 2012, the EBRD confirmed that it has invested more than €1.3 billion in 55 projects in the country. On top of the funds directed to local farming, the EBRD has also approved a €49 million loan to the Tunisian Ministry of Agriculture, Hydraulic Resources and Fisheries destined to improve access to irrigation waters for more than 6,800 farmers and their families.
Strategic development plans
Those funds will help reinstate deep wells and ageing water infrastructures in southern regions such as Gabès, Gafsa, Kebili and Tozeur whose almost 40 oases are “the primary source of employment and income in the region, with irrigated agriculture providing jobs to 35 percent of the working population,” the EBRD wrote in a press note.
The EBRD project will follow the path of the strategic development plans announced by Tunisia for sustainable water management in the southern regions. The modernization of the infrastructures, “will also address the depletion of non-renewable groundwater resources through the development of a long-term sustainable strategy to address the water scarcity in the region, as well as a training program for farmers to promote more sustainable agricultural practices and water management and identify alternative income sources.”
“Olive growing is one of the most relevant agricultural activities and it exerts a pivotal role for its socio-cultural ramifications, fostering development and curtailing depopulation in rural areas”- Massimiliano Giansanti, president, Confagricoltura
 has confirmed a new €6.2 million loan to help olive farming sector in Tunisia.){kind=link}