Production of summer fruit reached this year 650 thousand tons up 9% over 2011, said Abdelfatteh Said, director of fruit trees and vegetable crops at the Ministry of Agriculture.

These include grapes (127,000 tons), apricots (30 MT), almonds and pears (62 MT), grenades (74 MT).

As for the production of watermelons and melons, it rose, alone, to 600,000 tons, bringing the total production of summer fruits to 1.25 million tons.

Regarding the production of dates, Samir Ben Slimane, commercial director at the

Interprofessional Group of Fruits (GIF), noted that it has reached 192,000 tons this season, 89,000 tons of which were exported for revenues worth 308 million dinars, against 78,000 tons exported last season (270 million dinars).