Consumer Associations: “No scarcity of staple commodities on voting day”

The spokesman of the Algerian traders and artisans, Hadj Tahar Boulenouar, told Echorouk on Tuesday that 43 wholesale markets for vegetables and fruits at the national level would be duly open on Election Day, April 17th, to ensure the regular supply of basic products for the country’s traders and thereby for the consumers.

He indicated that the hovering fear harboured by some ill-informed people that the wholesale markets could be closed on Election Day had triggered off a transient dearth of basic commodities and a sudden hike in prices in certain markets in various parts of the country.

Mr Hadj Boulenouar stressed to this effect that that he had received  fact-finding reports saying that certain venal  dealers and traders had rumoured that a scarcity of foodstuffs and other basic products was in the offing on account of the April 17 elections with the covert aim of increasing prices  at the expense of the helpless consumers.

In a bid to face up to this untoward situation, Hadj Boulenouar pointed out that the National Union of traders had urged all merchants across the country’s 48 provinces to open their shops and businesses on election day and to ensure the normal supply of the citizens with everything they need in terms of basic commodities without having to hike prices or unleash rumors of  so-called looming food shortages for venal purposes.