Tunisia's rolling power outages cripple industry and exports

Repeated electricity cuts across Tunisia have forced factories, workshops and small enterprises into prolonged downtime. Exporters report lost shipments, such as a canned‑food producer that had to postpone a French order after weeks without power, damaging relationships with European retailers. According to Foued Gueddich, president of Taste Tunisia, interruptions in processes like pasteurisation render products unsellable after an hour‑and‑a‑half, leading to hidden losses amounting to thousands of dinars.

The impact reaches households and small businesses: apiculturist Nadia Sassi saw her workshop burn after repeated cuts caused electrical overheating, losing equipment, wax stock and the jobs of seven families. Industry organisations estimate that 13% of national poultry production and up to 500 tonnes of meat have been destroyed, 70% of restaurants were affected, and textile factories suffered up to 55 hours of shutdown in a single week. Generators and batteries are now essential stop‑gap solutions, while investors cite reliable electricity as a key condition for new projects.