1250 Algerians Are Fake Owners Of Factories

Algeria counted 1250 people who are registered at the National Center for Commercial Registration as a producer and manufacturer of drinks, without any activity on the ground, Chairman of the National Association of Agricultural Producers of Beverages, Ali Hammani, said.

“These people are fake producers and they withdrew from the market or died, but their families inform the services of the Commerce Ministry about their news”.

In a statement to Echorouk, the spokesman explained: “Commerce Ministry counts 1,700 beverage producers, who have the commercial register for the activity, while the market actually contains only 450 products, the rest are mere names that do not exist in the field, and have no activity, some of them faced bankruptcy and others changed activity, and there is also a list with the names of people who died”.

“Our association requested the Ministry of Commerce to re-clean the market and update the data of the services of the Commercial Registry Center and remove those registered as producers and owners of workshops and factories for drinks, whether juice or soft drinks or mineral water and even alcoholic beverages, so as to be able to control the national production and know its real size and the added value that they can add to the national economy”.

In the language of the figures, he said: “Algerians consume annually 4.5 billion liters of beverages of various forms, including 200 million liters of alcoholic beverages, while the government praised the decision that is represented by the Ministry of Commerce to lift the ban on the import of flavors and raw materials that are involved in the production of drinks, which was signed by the new Minister of Trade, Said Djallab, which he described as “the person who hubs and listens to the other party”, asserting that this decision raises the morale of producers, and protects them from the risk of bankruptcy and layoffs.

“These products do not only fall within the framework of the production of beverages, but also dairy products, cakes and other food industries, which necessitates the need to open the import to meet the needs of the national market”, but according to the President of the Association of industrial producers of drinks, it does not necessarily raise prices in the next stage, because the price is controlled by other factors, saying: “We can not link the opening quotas for the import of flavors and not raise the price of juices in the market, although the decision to increase prices hurt the product more than the consumer, as it will necessarily reduce the purchasing power of the citizen and so the demand will drop.”

Commerce Ministry announced on Monday the lifting of the import ban on some raw materials in the food industry.

It said that there is a temporary suspension of importation of a number of substances in the food industry, such as juices and drinks, yogurt, biscuits, sweets and chocolates, and also confirmed that these products, which are usually called muffins, are now free in the import process, according to the conditions that are stipulated for the benefit of the concerned dealers.