Why Tunisia?

• Tunisia has a large economy including agriculture, mining, energy and factory production, and factory production is dominated by the textile and leather industries, which account for 45% of total exports, with half of the factory production sector employed in these two sectors. Tunisia’s leather business does not reach Ethiopia, but it is one of the best in Africa.
• The footwear industry in Tunisia is mainly located in the areas of Nabeul, Tunis and Sfax. The total number of people working in companies with 10 or more employees was 25,430, of which 20,914 worked in factories that produce only for export. The average annual growth during this period was 7%.
• Italy is Tunisia’s main market, with 40% of Tunisia’s exports going to Italy, followed by France (38%) and Germany (10%).
• Tunisia exports mainly to large European markets, led by Italy and Germany, and sources mostly from China. The country’s industry exports mainly leather footwear (with a share of 67% in the total footwear exports).
• According to National Leather and Shoe Centre (CNCC) exports from Tunisia’s leather and shoes grow 11, 5% in first trimester of 2013, having achieved $177 million dollars.  The increase was driven by an 11, 4% hike in exports of footwear, which represents $ 104 million dollars.
• Tunisia’s imports consist mainly of leathers, hides, accessories, parts, and uppers. Data from CNCC show that China was the main supplying country of footwear, being responsible of 49.3% of Tunisia’s imports.