The Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, a public institution placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance, recently presented an offer to the Sousse court for the acquisition of the Sidi Bou Ali dairy factory.
This proposal is currently awaiting the court decision which will have to rule on its approval or not, according to information reported by Mosaic FM,
The Sidi Bou Ali factory had been closed in 2018 due to serious financial difficulties and suspicion of corruption. This situation had led to the dismissal of around 200 employees, while 154 others remained available to the company, without wages, during all these years, according to Mohsen Jeballah, secretary general of the company’s basic union.
Entry into activity in 1978, this industrial unit was one of the main contributors to national milk production and its derivatives. During peak periods, between January and April, daily production reached between 400,000 and 500,000 liters, and dropped to around 300,000 liters per day during the months of June, July and August.
The factory, formerly public, was privatized in 2005 and sold to two Tunisian investors for an amount of 8 million dinars, the Tunisian state nevertheless retaining 15% of the capital, via the National Agricultural Bank (BNA).
