Tunisia’s Office of the Merchant Navy and Ports celebrates 50th anniversary

Originally established as the Office of National Ports on February 12^th, 1965, it was set up as a public and commercial institution to oversee operations (including pilots, tugs, berth management and security) at the ports of Bizerte, La Goulette/Tunis, Sousse and Sfax.

Since then the number of ports under its management has expanded to seven including Rades, Gabes, and Zarzis.

Today 30m tons of cargo representing more than 95% of Tunisia’s foreign trade now passes across the berths under the control of the Office of the Merchant Navy and Ports, renamed in 1998.

Cruise traffic is also a significant part of OMMP’s business with the ports of La Goulette, Sousse and Bizerte part of the Tunisian Ports membership of MedCruise. They welcomed 175 calls and 440,4560 passengers last year.

Today around 1,500 OMMP employees are working at Tunisia’s ports.