Algerian market suffers a deficit of 400 thousand tons of meat per year

The Director General of the national company for the meat transformation and freezing Djahid Zefzef has yesterday indicated that prices didn’t slump despite the import of huge quantities, because the applied procedures for the two products are different.

• For his part, the representative of the Algerian traders has asserted that the import of meat had a negative impact on the prices.

• In a declaration to Echourouk, the manager of “ Prada “ company has completely denied any correlation between the skyrocketing prices of this product and the import of frozen meat decided by the authorities ahead of the holy month of Ramadan.

• He blamed the distributors for manipulating the prices noting that his company doesn’t control the network that comprises wholesalers and retailers so as to keep the prices at the reach of the citizens which means 550 Algerian Dinars the kilogram.

• “Our company is only responsible for the import of the frozen meat and is not entrusted with setting the prices; the wholesalers manipulate them as they wish. The regulation of the market requires a fundamental restructuring f the sector”, he said.

• The representative of the Algerian traders and craftsmen Hadj Tahar Boulenour has asserted that the causes behind the skyrocketing prices of domestic meat are due to the high price of the imported meat that exceeded 600 Algerian Dinars in various parts of the country, noting that wholesalers raised the prices amid a total absence of the authorities.

• To recall, the total need of meat is estimated at 1 million tons per year while the gross domestic production doesn’t exceed 600 thousand tons, while the government imports some 70 thousand tons per year with a value estimated at 300 million Euros.