Tunisian city of Testour hosts 10th Pomegranate Festival with 250 exhibitors

The Tunisian city of Testour holds its annual Pomegranate Festival, bringing together producers and visitors for one of the region’s most prominent autumn events.

This year, Testour is hosting the festival’s 10th edition, with around 250 exhibitors. The event goes beyond showcasing and selling fruit, also highlighting pomegranate-based products such as juices, jams, and food items, as well as traditional crafts, artistic performances, and cultural activities.

According to data from the Interprofessional Fruit Group, Tunisia produced about 98,000 tons of pomegranates this season, up from 91,000 tons last year—an increase of nearly 8 percent. Pomegranate cultivation covers around 10,472 hectares and includes approximately 4,679,000 trees.

More than 95 percent of these orchards are irrigated, underscoring the importance of water resources for sustaining and improving production quality.

The leading production areas are Gabes, Beja, Nabeul, and Kairouan. Gabes and Beja each produce about 17,000 tons, Nabeul over 15,000 tons, and Kairouan around 14,000 tons. Together, these regions account for more than 65 percent of Tunisia’s total pomegranate harvest.

This distribution highlights the diversity of Tunisia’s pomegranate-growing environments and creates opportunities to develop processing, packaging, and marketing methods, enhancing the product’s added value and supporting its access to international markets.