2023-10-27 10:49:56
BISKRA – The Minister of Trade and Export Promotion, Tayeb Zitouni, underlined, Thursday evening in the commune of Djemora (45 km northeast of Biskra), “the importance of organizing the date sector to protect this fruit as a national product of economic and cultural value”.
The minister, on a working visit to the wilaya of Biskra, underlined, during a meeting with economic operators and date producers, held in the meeting room of the Cilas cement production factory, that this sector , which must be supported because of its economic value, “suffers from problems related to production, marketing, price structure and export mechanisms”.
Mr. Zitouni also deplored “the lack of homogeneity” and the “intruders who are detrimental to the date industry”, which requires, according to him, meetings with professionals to remove all obstacles to exports and facilitate the arrival of Algerian dates on international markets.
Algeria, which produces more than 265 varieties of dates, led by “Deglet Nour” whose quality is recognized worldwide, nevertheless finds itself “at the back of the pack in the list of date exporters internationally, at a time when some countries are at the top of the list without producing this fruit”, revealed Mr. Zitouni, noting, in this regard, that within the framework of the strict measures which will be taken to fight against the smuggling of dates, all proposals aimed at regulating the markets premises and to exploit spaces for the benefit of honest traders are studied.
In the same context, the Minister of Trade and Export Promotion reassured the phoenic growers by affirming that this sector will be organized and that the national production which is 1,400 million tonnes annually “will only be exported in the name of the Algeria, not in the name of other countries” or “will stay in Algeria”.
Regarding the promotion of national production, within the framework of an economic and scientific approach, Mr. Zitouni stressed that Algeria “has made progress in terms of non-hydrocarbon exports, and sells abroad , construction materials, for which Algeria has moved from import to export, as well as iron and medicines, such as insulin which covers, this year, national needs and will begin to be exported as soon as next year”.
On the sidelines of his visit to the Ziban wilaya, the minister, accompanied by local authorities, supervised the loading of a cargo of cement produced by the Cilas factory, intended for export.
This cement plant, it will be recalled, has reached, since the beginning of the year, the mark of one million tonnes exported to countries in Africa and America.
Mr. Zitouni had previously visited an agricultural investor operating in the commune of Meziraâ, and who exports his fruit and vegetable production, then inspected a date packaging unit in the commune of Tolga.
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