On Monday, the Libyan Minister of Economy and Trade, Mohamed Al-Hwaij stressed the need to find sources of financing for infrastructure projects in the country.
These remarks came during a meeting with the Director of the African Development Bank’s (AFDB) regional office, Mohamed El-Azizi in Tripoli.
“The priority is to achieve food security by financing food security projects in southern Libya,” the Libyan minister said.
Al-Hwaij also reviewed the targeted projects in the fisheries sector, and their initial revenue estimates, which amount to $2.4 billion dollars. This would also provide 22,000 job opportunities for youths.
In a statement, the ministry said that the attendees discussed ways of enhancing joint cooperation in order to identify the plans and projects that will be included in the AFDB’s agenda in 2023 and 2024.
They also discussed “all possible ways to open new horizons for cooperation, development, and investment in Libya,” with a view to contributing to the economic and social development of the North African country.
Earlier today, the Economy Ministry announced that Libya’s imports of food and raw materials needed to operate the food industry, amounted to $4.439 billion dollars in 2022.
The ministry said in a statement that the value of food imports in 2022 increased by $700 million compared to 2021, with an increase of 15%.
Notably, the Italian Trade Agency (ITA) confirmed that Italy was the largest trading partner of Libya in the first eleven months of 2022.
ITA explained that the volume of trade between Italy and Libya amounted to €11.09 billion euros, an increase of 67.38 % compared to the same period in 2021.
It added that the Italian market share reached 23.19%, ahead of China, which recorded an increase of 9.22%, with a market share of €4.41 billion, and Greece which recorded 8.31%, with €3.97 billion.
The agency said that Italian exports to Libya recorded a 73.69 % growth, compared to the same period in 2021, reaching €1.94 billion and a market share of 13.11 %.
Last week, the Russian Agricultural Ministry’s Agroexport center announced that Libya has already imported about 800,000 tons of wheat from Russia from July 1, 2022, to February 20, 2023, according to Interfax.
According to the review, Russia’s agricultural exports to Libya in 2022 compared to 2021 increased by 79.5% in value terms due to an increase in shipments of grain, wheat flour, and yeast. In 2021, the value of exports was $274.9 million (947,500 tons).
According to the Center’s estimates, the estimated potential supply of agribusiness products from Russia to Libya exceeds $500 mln a year.
