Soaring prices in Algeria and call for a boycott of food products
There is no doubt that in Algeria and more particularly since the beginning of this holy month of Ramadan, the galloping inflation which persecutes the Algerian consumer jeopardizes the purchasing power of Algerian consumers. So we have been witnessing since the beginning of Ramadan a call for a boycott of certain food products.
This is how the soaring prices of certain vegetables and fruits, such as potatoes and bananas, prompted the Algerians to launch a boycott campaign, “Boycott it and don’t buy it», « let it darken », or for the potato « that it remains to rot “… are the terms most used by Algerians who have raised the national campaign.
Many Internet users in Algeria share these publications which have generated a large participation, and a large share of comments on social networks. The Algerian protests against inflation, on fruits and vegetables, by calling on the web for a boycott in particular of a vegetable and a fruit among others, emblematic in Algeria. The price of bananas oscillates between 600 and 700 DA per kilo (5 to 6 euros) while on the world markets, the price of bananas has even fallen.
In Algeria, the banana is more than just a fruit. It is first and foremost the symbol of an era, the end of the 1980s and President Chadli Bendjedid’s “anti-shortage” program which allowed several products to enter the Algerian market which had been closed until then.
This fruit is also a regulating basic product which, thanks to its modest price up to now – sometimes cheaper than the potato – allowed Algerians to eat fruit even when the local seasonal fruits, such as the cherry which exceeds 600 DA per kilo, are sometimes inaccessible. For the year 2020 Algeria imported the total volume of 301,000 tonnes of bananas, against 241,000 tonnes in 2019, this is a year-on-year increase of 25%.
The objective of these demonstrations on the web according to consumer protection associations in Algeria, in addition to dealing with the soaring prices of most fruits and vegetables, is to establish a culture of boycott for all goods. consumption whose prices reach an unjustified ceiling. According to the consumer price index of the Algerian government body responsible for collecting socio-economic and demographic data, the Algerian National Statistics Office (ONS), the prices of food goods in one year have increased by nearly 15% while fresh agricultural products (local) for their part suffered an average price increase of 17% with mention for the potato which prances at + 60.3%.
Industrial food products also marked a 15.3% increase in their prices with, in particular, +34.1% for oils and fats. The prices of products derived from cereals (subsidized) have risen by 12%, those of poultry and eggs have increased by nearly 16.5% and at one point more we find the prices of meat and fish. Imported or local fruits increased by 10% with mention for the banana which went at least from single to double. To stay in imports, the prices of coffee and tea have not been outdone and have soared by a quarter of their prices in one year.
This generalized increase which testifies to a mad inflation makes that the basket of the Algerian housewife feels serious about it. She buys fewer goods and services while seeing her purchasing power slip away. This symbol of the high cost of living in Algeria is impoverishing whole sections of Algerian society. Food products of all categories, which are becoming more and more expensive, affect more than 66% of Algerian consumers, it is still said.
.