French “Crystal Union” to produce sugar in Algeria in 2016 in order to break Rebrab’s monopoly

French company “Crystal Union” is expected to enter to the Algerian market, in partnership with the Algerian company “Le Belle” for the production of sugar, by the beginning of 2016.

Reuters news agency reported from its office in London, on Wednesday, that this refinery imported not less than 10,000 tons of raw Brazilian sugar of good quality, during the last few weeks, to try its production, and according to the data that was reported by the agency, the refinery will begin its activity with the capacity of 350,000 tons of sugar per year, representing 30% of the specific national consumption that is fixed by 1.2 million tons, before doubling the production, which will create a real competition to the customer “Cevital” and its owner Ysaad Rebrab who monopolized the production of this good.

It seems that the Algerian authorities found in the French trader a refuge to break the monopoly of Rebrab, as the Trade Minister, Bakhti Belaib, recently announced on stopping the monopoly of Cevital for the production of sugar at the beginning of 2016, through the entry of three companies into service, without mentioning any names.

In addition, official figures showed, on Wednesday, official records, about the deficit of $10.33 billion in the first nine months of 2015, compared to a surplus of $ 4.09 billion a year earlier, following a sharp drop in energy revenues due to the collapse of crude oil prices, as the deficit increased the ratio of exports coverage for imports to 74%, from 109% in the period between January to the end of September 2014, according to figures of the Customs’ services.

Oil and gas exports represent 94.6% of total exports, which value reached $27.29 billion in the first nine months of 2015, with a decline of 41.4% on an annual basis, and the total value of exports declined by 40.2% on an annual basis to $28.86 billion, while imports decreased by 11.3% to $39.19 billion, and Algeria is trying to reduce the import bill in light of the low price of oil, as Algeria is expected to reduce energy revenues to 50% this year.