November 13, 2013

During the first nine months of 2013, Algeria's industrial milk imports further dropped by 11.4 % over the same period last year.

Algerian news agency reports this shows the country's spending on imports of industrial milk decreased from US$877.96 million in 2012 to US$777.98 million in 2013.

In the first nine months of last year, overall milk imports declined more than 13.8% from 233,302 tonnes to 200,980 tonnes in the same period this year, the National Centre Statistics (CNIS) of the Customs said.

The government spends more than DZD46 billion (US$571.35 million) annually to subsidise the dairy industry and encourage production to reduce imports.

The government has set up a system for the development of national milk production to boost local production.

Algeria is one of the world's largest importers of milk and dairy products.