Sfax more than a city, the economic beating heart
Sfax is considered as the economic capital of Tunisia. This city is located 270 km (170 mi) southeast of Tunis was founded in AD 849 on the ruins of Roman Taparura. Sfax Governorate accounts around about 955,421 inhabitants in 2014). It Mediterranean port, is considered by its importance and its trading ability.
The port of Sfax, a pivotal gain
The port of Sfax is a versatile port. Its dominant traffic consists of solid bulk (phosphate and derivatives, sea salt, cereals …) as well as containers of various products.
Due to its privileged geographical position on the Mediterranean Sea, Sfax has always maintained privileged relations with the West, especially since the development of its main port created in 1905 which opens on nearly 40 countries of the 5 continents. Sfax is the first commercial port of Tunisia in terms of traffic and the second in terms of value.
The quantity of products exported is estimated at 2 million tons, mainly from the region of Sfax located in the center of Tunisia and its neighbors in the south of the country: sea salt, olive oil, processed phosphates and various other products. That explains why this city is usually called the capital of the south.
It imports three million tonnes of goods: food products, chemicals, construction materials, cereals and equipment needed for the national market.
The saltworks of Sfax
Located 270 km from Tunis, the Grand Sfax second largest Tunisian agglomeration after Tunis represents 10% of the population, forming a territory of 220 km2, composed of 7 communes spread around Sfax between the suburbs of Sakiet Ezzit, Sakiet Eddaïer, El Aïn, Gremda, Chihia and Thyna all had about 500,000 inhabitants in 2004.
Founded in 1949, the "Compagnie Generale des Salines de Tunisie" (COTUSAL), a subsidiary of the Salins Group, operates the saltworks located on the south coast of Grand Sfax stretching for 15 km, from the commercial port of Sfax to Thyna.
These saltworks have an economic and ecological interests.
In fact, the quantity of salt produced is about 350000 tons a year, in addition to a few thousand tons of special brines.
They are also classified as Important Bird Conservation Areas (IBAs), these wetlands shaped and protected by salt farming, constitute a site that hosts an exceptional flora and fauna.
To know more about the Salines of Sfax Listen
Olive oil the gold of Sfax
Sfax is the land of olives, a place where the olive tree has infiltrated over millennia with the culture, economy, cuisine, habits, rhythms, seasons of the country. Some Tunisians even infest newborns with olive oil.
Indeed, Tunisia is one of the largest producers of olive oil in the world - a fact little known to most people who are not expert of olive oil. There are olives in the landscape. Around 1.8 million hectares of olive groves with 82 million trees, about 30 percent of the cultivated land of this North African country.
The manufacture of olive oil may seem almost exclusive to Italy and Greece, where olive oil is poured on all kinds of food products with a healthy abandonment. When people think of a Mediterranean diet and healthy olives at the center of their meals, they rightly think of Rome and ancient Athens.
The history of Tunisia and its ancestral culture of the olive tree are very old and it reveals to the Carthaginian empire,
from c. 650 BCE to 146 BCE.
“Harvest of olives” mousaic ©TUNIS BARDO MUSEUM
Office of Merchant Marine and Ports Republic of Tunisia
Le coin des bes salés, Website.
“Tunisie : terre de l’olivier”, Olive Oil Time Website.
Escapades et découvertes Website.