Algeria Plans No More Wheat Imports

Algeria, which will not need to import more durum and soft wheat this year, is also unlikely to buy durum wheat from abroad for the first half of next year, the local daily El Watan said. Algeria was the world's fifth largest wheat importer last year, according to official figures.

"We have enough stocks that has enabled our country to not import durum wheat for 2010, and will likely be the same for the first half of 2011," it quoted Noureddine Kehal, the head of state grain agency OAIC, as saying. Regarding soft wheat, Algeria will not need imports this year as well as for the first six months of the next, he added.

"We had bought 400,000 tonnes of soft wheat in June when the prices were down. We have also bought 2.5 million quintals of soft wheat in July," Kahal said.

He did not unveil precise figures for the 2010 harvest but said it will come in 30% lower from the previous year when Algeria had a record of 6.1 million tonnes of cereals. - Reuters