A customer stands in front of empty shelves inside a supermarket in Tunis.
Tunis:
Food shortages are worsening in Tunisia with empty shelves in supermarkets and bakeries, fueling popular discontent over high prices and increasing the risk of unrest as the government tries to address the crisis in public finances.
There are widespread shortages of sugar, cooking oil, milk and butter, coffee, tobacco and bottled water, worsening in poor areas far from the capital.
Street tea vendor Mustafa Dahech, 82, said he relied on sugar to make a sweet drink sold in paper cups from a metal teapot as he wandered the narrow streets of a poor Tunis district.
“There’s no sugar. I swear there are none,” he said, making it hard for him to move his income beyond a state pension of $55 a month.
Small protests have already taken place and the head of the powerful main trade union UGTT has repeatedly warned of a “hunger revolution” in recent months.
The shortfall is partly due to disruptions linked to the COVID pandemic and the war in Ukraine due to a squeeze in global commodities and a rise in prices.
uncertain finances
However, Tunisia may face more disruption as its weak financial position makes it difficult to buy staples at high international rates and sell them internally at the same subsidized rate it was already using.
The government is seeking an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout to help with its budget and debt repayments, but support will depend on subsidies and cuts in public sector wage bills and restructuring of state-owned companies.
Negotiations between the government and the UGTT to agree on those reforms – a possible prerequisite of IMF support – are still stuck.
Without the IMF bailout, Tunisia would have to borrow internally, restrict loans to local businesses, which diplomats say could further damage the economy, or use up its foreign exchange reserves, to the dinar. can cause damage and increase inflation.
The government has blamed the shortage on global goods and domestic hoarders and speculators and denies that it is facing problems in paying for imports.
The UGTT had said earlier this year that the government was struggling to pay for the import of wheat. The World Bank, the European Union, Japan and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development have extended food aid loans to Tunisia this year.
Dairy producers have sought state support for inflation on animal feed and other expenses, which they attributed to shortages of milk and butter.
A UGTT official has said that due to shortage of sugar, many food factories have come to a standstill. Workers at a soda drink factory protested against the threat to their jobs last week.
The shortage of coffee, which is being rationed for one pack per customer in some stores, has led to the closure of some temporary cafes.
“We are a cafe. We have nothing but coffee to offer our customers,” said Nouredin Ben Hassan, owner of Independence Cafe in Tunis. He said the shortage of coffee, milk and sugar had forced him to shut down.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)