Algeria lost $15 b since 2003 due to the Milk “Crisis”

An extensive study by a Joint Ministerial Committee which included the health , industry, environment, trade and agriculture sectors, on the use of the Polyethylene in food packaging and health, pharmaceutical products, medicines and cosmetics, at the request of the Prime Ministry first, shows that this substance perfectly matched to the international safety and security standards, and does not constitute a risk to public health, according to the scientific results that have been reached by the National Control Laboratory for Consumables in Algiers and the Pasteur Institute.

These results are identical to the European study that was conducted for the same purpose, and which concluded that the use of the Polyethylene in food packaging of all kinds does not constitute a risk on public health.

The study indicates that the Polyethylene packaging technology is used widely in Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, under the text of the European Instruction No. 2002/72/EC, as it also used the same technique on a large scale in the United States, where it is used in the packaging of milk, meat, fish and derivatives, chicken and dairy products, medicines, semi-pharmaceutical lotions, cosmetics and decorations.

Expert in petrochemical Industries at the Algerian Institute of Petroleum in Boumerdes, told Echorouk; “The bar of plastics, which is used in packaging, and is known scientifically as the Polyethylene, is a combination of carbon and hydrogen, which is closest to the composition of the human body, which means that the hypothesis of the health risk to humans does not go beyond the hype only by parties that want to hide behind this argument to achieve material gains. Prime Minister, Abdelmalek Sellal, may be subjected to an arbitrary fallacy”.

In economic terms, government cannot prevent the smuggling of milk cartons on the borders, unlike the milk bags that cannot be kept for a long time, as the amount of needed Polyethylene to produce one liter per bag does not exceed 6 grams vs. 15 g for the carton.

Algeria is currently available on 126 milk factories in the production stage, while 32 new units are waiting to get powdered milk from the office of milk to start the production. This would allow the easing of the pressure in the areas where there is a shortage of milk supply? 

National Milk Office refused to justify the reasons for its refusal to provide new plants with powder milk.

Fresh milk production does not exceed 600 million liters per year

High official source from the Ministry of Agriculture, told Echorouk; “Figures that were announced by Minister of the sector on Algeria’s production from fresh cow’s milk is estimated at about 3 billion liters are false Actual production does not exceed 600 million liters in best cases. While the figures are magnified in order to support the acquisition of the funds that are allocated by the state for producers and cattle breeders and fresh milk collection companies, which directed it towards dairy industry by well-known international brands”.

“Production of 3 billion liters of fresh milk per year in Algeria requires the presence of 800.000 dairy cows which produce a daily average of at least 3,500 to 4,000 liters per year. No, It is impossible to achieve that figures due to the modest livestock of dairy cows and the decline in the number of imported cattle”.

“Algeria’s money lost, during the last decade, without being able to achieve sufficiency in milk exceeded $15 billion, of which $5 billion are directed to support milk powder that goes in the end into the pockets of breeders and producers in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, along the lines of $10 b, which represents the import bill of milk over the past decade.