Tunisia has been sweltering under intense heat in recent weeks, forcing the national electricity company to impose rolling blackouts to reduce strain on the power grid. The power cuts have come with a heavy cost, especially for farmers and food producers.

At a poultry farm, veterinarian Hamza Bouchrit described the disaster: ‘We had a power cut. Nearly 90 percent of the chickens died, between 150,000 and 200,000. There was a power outage. We have a backup generator that is only used for troubleshooting. It’s designed to run for two to three hours. The power cut lasted a long time. The generator overheated and stopped working. The disaster happened.’

Employees at the farm say the blackouts have heavily impacted their working conditions, making it difficult to carry out routine tasks. Bouchrit added: ‘We’re still at a standstill. We keep on collecting the dead (chickens). The smell of dead chickens is terrible. We don’t understand, it’s close to 400 to 500 tonnes of meat. That’s a loss of more than 1,400,000 to 1,500,000 dinars (around 445,000 euros). It’s an enormous loss.’

A neighbouring dairy farm also suffered. Milk producer Aziz Bouhejba explained: ‘We took losses because we had to literally throw away milk. We dumped six days worth of milking, which comes to about 1,200 litres of milk that we had to pour away, that we had to throw out. That’s a straight loss that we’re finding very hard to recover from.’

The fishing sector has also been hit by the heatwave, as the price of ice has gone up, in turn driving up the prices of fish.

According to africanews.com, the rolling blackouts are a direct response to the surge in demand for air conditioning during the extreme heat. The national electricity company has resorted to these measures to prevent a total grid collapse, but the economic toll on small producers is mounting.

Tunisia, like much of North Africa, is experiencing increasingly frequent and intense heatwaves, a trend linked to global climate change. The country’s infrastructure, particularly its power grid, is struggling to keep up with demand, leaving businesses and residents vulnerable.

Farmers and workers are calling for better contingency plans and investment in backup power systems to prevent such losses in the future. The government has yet to announce any compensation measures for those affected.