Original title: Start up Tunisia
Despite being very rich in natural resources and economic possibilities, the Kroumerie-Mogods region, north-west of Tunisia, is hit by social exclusion and poverty. Unemployment, especially the female and juvenile one, reaches rates of 44%. These problems results from centralized economic policies that have given rise to a poorly diversified economy. Most families live on wheat farming and crops for livestock. Non-agricultural economic activities are wood handicrafts, distillation of forest plants (rosemary, myrtle, mint and sage), mushroom picking, fruit and vegetable production. This poverty is due to the following causes: agricultural activities are informal and often remain excluded from the market. Women, who are the cornerstone of these activities, find it hard to reconcile this work with domestic tasks. The production is based on the use of traditional production techniques that are not compliant with regulations and not ensure a continuous production, risking to be replaced by industrial plants. The difficulties are also transport and distribution networks, in addition to the lack of integration between the various players in the production chain, the absence of associations that do not communicate with the government, the lack of marketing skills.
The project will deal with territorial marketing, with the improvement of products marketing for existing agricultural enterprises and with the increase of the number of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) managed by women and young people, creating employment and possible synergies with the system of companies from the Marche region, supported by the municipality of Fano.
The project, reinforcing the Tunisian SMEs system and making available the expertise of a diversified partnership (Università di Urbino, Consorzio Marche Biologiche, Fondazione Agraria Conte di Montevecchio, CEFA), will act directly on the creation of employment in the agricultural sector, as well as in the breeding and transformation one. Thanks to successful models that will be implemented, the aim is creating a new workforce prepared and competent for the SMEs themselves.
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