[Algeria] Cereal Import Bill Rises in Q1 2015

 Algeria's cereal imports (wheat, barley and maize) stood at about USD940 million in the first quarter of 2015, against USD797 million over the same period in 2013, up 17.84%, Algerian Customs have disclosed.

Imported cereal quantities recorded an upward trend by 28%, with an increase of 3.51 million tonnes against 2.74 million tonnes during the same period of reference in 2014, according to the figures provided by the Algerian Customs' Centre of Statistics and Data Processing (CNIS).

The imports of (soft and hard) wheat have reached USD625.82 million between January and March 2015 against USD548.59 million over the same period in 2014, up 14%, the Customs said.

The quantities of imported wheat rose by 19.52% to 2.06 million tonnes in the first quarter of 2015, against 1.72 million tonnes over the first three months in 2014. The increase concerned mainly hard wheat, whose import bill grew by about 54%.

Hard wheat imports have reached USD233.68 million (509,141 tonnes), against USD151.86 million (410,000 tonnes) over the same period in 2014.

Barley imports increased by about USD70.1 million (286,052 tonnes), against USD53.5 million (212,979 tonnes), up by over 24% in value, according to CNIS data.

Maize imports, which increased by more than 26.7% in value, have reached USD243.26 million (1.16 million tonnes) in the first quarter of 2015, against USD191.2 million (801,197 tonnes) during the same period in 2014.

In 2014, cereal imports (wheat, barley and maize) stood at USD3.54 billion, against USD3.16 in 2013, up 12%.

Cereal imported quantities also recorded an upward trend (+22.4%), with 12.3 million tonnes in 2014, against 10.04 million tonnes in 2013.

APS