A Agro-food Industries in Algeria: Between the confirmation of performance and the consolidation of food security

Abstract

The agro-food industries are considered a part of international process which tries to establish itself as a sector which will allow a revival of the productive apparatus, of the industrial apparatus and especially the contribution in the settlement of the pending concerns for any economy, like employment, nutrition, inflation, internal and external trade, the trade balance and mainly the domestic product.

Certainly, and since the discovery of the industrial revolution in the mid-1700s, concentration has been established in particular at the level of heavy and light industries, as was the case with manufacturing, mining, mechanical, electronic and other industries since that the existing opportunities have given wings to producers and manufacturers to better integrate into domestic and international markets.

In Algeria, and like any economy that seeks an economic development strategy, more sustainable and sustained, the industrial sector and particularly that of hydrocarbons holds a predominant and crucial place, judging from the tables of inputs and outputs and especially those of indicators of national economy, on the other hand, the agro-food sector seems clearly supported by economic decision-makers, despite the confirmation of its importance in food, nutrition and trade issues for the country.

The latest upheavals observed, both internally and externally, have revived the idea of revitalizing the sector in order to respond two essential concerns:

1) The need to meet the incessant needs of the population.

2) The need to provide them with food that meets the health needs required according to international standards.

This paper will attempt to shed light on this sector too long put on the backburner by economic decision-makers (too busy with the hydrocarbons sector) and which suddenly (due to the effects of the fall in price of a barrel) finds itself among the economic priorities of the State, in order to analyze the real potential available and meet the expectations of the State and especially consumers and markets.

We will attempt a strategic analysis based on a few steps taken by Algerian companies, with the objective of tracing the real opportunities and potentials of theses in the realization of their own objectives as well as other economic agents, in particular the State (in the food safety issue) and consumers (in their socio-economic design).