Food losses play a very important role in efforts to fight hunger, increase incomes and improve food security in the poorest countries. They have an impact on food security for the poorest populations, on food quality and food safety, on economic development and on the environment.
The purpose of the survey is to analyze food consumption habits. The variables used are regional disparity and socio-economic category (age group, monthly food consumption expenditure, consumer preferences for supermarkets, density of meal preparation, preparation for purchases in view of compliance with the needs (rationality).
Our sample consists of 2004 households over 20 years old; our sample was broken down into 4 age groups, by sex, by 7 regions, by number of families, by number of working families, and by education.
thanks to our sample, we detecteddetect the following factors or determinants of food waste; a highest percentage claim that they buy too much in quantities greater than needed, a lower percentage believe that they cook large quantities of meals, a smaller number of consumers claim that they buy food products in a random manner. 74.8% argue that it is the default of poor food preservation. 58% of consumers explain this waste by the fact that food products become non-edible before the expiration date. Tunisian consumers are aware that there is a lot of waste (70% of Tunisian families consider that there is a lot of waste). Unfortunately, only 3.9% of the remaining food is recycled, which represents a very low percentage compared to that spilled in the trash (24%). Nevertheless, 45% of the remaining food is supplied to domestic animals, which explains a lower level of wastage in the north and south than in Greater Tunis (the presence of the activity of raising sheep, chickens and rabbits…). This component is a factor promoting the circular economy.
The South and East Mediterranean countries (SEMC) import huge food commodities that form the bulk of their food consumption. However, imports of basic products have been exposed to several hazards making it more difficult to improve agricultural performance and the satisfaction of the increasing demand due to population growth in the region. Indeed, political and social instability, the crisis in the euro area, food inflation and rising international prices of agricultural products only increase the import of food commodities prices. Moreover, our work is to analyze the agricultural vitality for this region. To do this, it is called in the first place to meet the Euro-Mediterranean agro business dynamics as well as emerging countries, secondly see the relevance of agricultural policies being implemented and finally an econometric investigation for Tunisia on agricultural competitiveness is required. From the study of reaction of the agricultural trade balance to a depreciation of the exchange rate, a change in national GDP and abroad, a price change on imports (including tariffs on imports) and improved factors of non-price competitiveness; we could determine the effect of openness on foreign trade under free trade area between Tunisia and the EU and within a framework of MFN with some new trading powers.