Trade between Morocco, Libya, Tunisia, and Spain is set to receive a boost from a new maritime trade route that is slated to open in March.
The route will be dedicated specifically to container transportation and will link the port of Sfax with destinations in Morocco, Spain, and Libya.
Malek Aloui, the spokesperson for this new maritime venture, disclosed in an interview with TAP that final preparations on both administrative and logistical fronts are rapidly nearing completion.
Travel to Morocco will be accomplished in just four days, while voyages to Spain will take a mere six days. Departures from Sfax will occur twice a month, promising increased connectivity for businesses, he added.
Experts said that this new route would witness a remarkable success given the significant commercial ties that bring these countries together, and their relatively distant location from the commercial paralysis in the Red Sea.
The current maritime shipment turmoil and the Russian war crisis could also benefit the new route, the experts added.
The route avoids passing through Algeria which hints at the limited commercial ties between Tunisia and Libya on one hand and Algeria on the other.
The Tunisian Ministry of Transport stated that this route is part of a strategy to reinforce Tunisia as a maritime commercial hub in the Mediterranean Sea.
The trade volume between Tunisia and Libya reached $970 million in 2022 and between Morocco and Tunisia $215.7 million in 2021. Trade between Tunisia and Spain totaled 1.9 billion euros (exports and imports) in 2022, recording a 27 percent increase in imports and 36 percent in exports.
