Algeria’s wheat import bill may be $1bn: official

Algeria, North Africa’s second- largest wheat importer after Egypt, may spend $1 billion this year on its wheat purchases, compared with $890 million last year, Noureddine Kehhal, general manager of the Algerian Cereals Office, said. The North African country’s soft wheat production may increase to 1.2 million metric tonnes this season, which covers 30 per cent of its needs, after the area cultivated by the grain was expanded to 600,000 hectares (1.48 million acres) from 500,000 hectares, Kehhal said in an interview in Algiers yesterday.

“We currently have sufficient stock of wheat, which may cover more than six months,” Kehhal said. Algeria is likely to import 5.2 million tonnes of the grain in the marketing year ending in June 2011, compared with five million tonnes a year earlier, according to the International Grains Council.