Tunis - Information Office - 06 February

HE Samir Al Tayyib, the Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries of the Republic of Tunisia, and HE Saad bin Nasser Al Humaidi, the Ambassador of the State of Qatar to Tunisia, inaugurated today the model center for the conversion and adaptation of agricultural products.

This center is a pilot project for snail collection, and it is the first of its kind in targeting such business in Tunisia.

The pilot project, which is part of a 2.6 million Tunisian dinars (about US$ 1.3 million) development grant, is funded by the Qatar Fund for Development in cooperation with the Tunisian Agricultural Investment Promotion Agency, and will create 430 jobs.

In a speech on the occasion, Samir Al Tayyib termed the Qatari-Tunisian cooperation as a model in the developmental fields, expressing his satisfaction with the level of relations between the two countries in the agricultural field especially in the recent period.

He said that the sector of snail breeding is one of the new and promising activities in the field of agricultural investment, and has the potential to create many job opportunities, especially for young people.

For his part, Al Humaidi said that this support is a practical translation of the strong and brotherly relations and ties that have been binding the Qatari and Tunisian peoples for many decades, pointing out that the State of Qatar has continuously affirmed its readiness to stand by the Tunisians through a number of economic measures and opening up fields of cooperation between the two countries, especially in view of the contribution of the Friendship Fund in the provision of job opportunities, and those which Qatar Fund for Development will provide in support of development projects in Tunisia.

The project is located in the governorate of Ben Arous and the entrance of the governorate of Zaghouan, 25 km from Tunis. It has a total area of 10 hectares, including a covered area of 1221 square meters.