Algeria's cash crunch: 'Buying oil feels like buying drugs'
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Loading... - Akila Ayad
- 05 Aug 2022
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Food prices are climbing sharply in Algeria, where shoppers say cooking oil and milk are so scarce that you need to butter up shopkeepers to get any.
The impact of measures to deal with first the coronavirus pandemic and now the war in Ukraine is making life hard for consumers.
"It feels like buying drugs," says Samiha Sammer, 31, with a mixture of cynicism and revulsion.
She used to love making cakes for family and friends, even making a side income from her passion, but can no longer find all the ingredients she needs.
"To buy cooking oil from any grocery shop, you need to be an acquaintance of the shop owner," Ms Sammer explains.
The exchange usually takes place discreetly, with the precious supply kept hidden at the back of the shop.
Like many Algerians she first noticed things changing last year, as Covid measures began to bite.
Now, with the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan due to start at the weekend, Algerians have been stepping up efforts to get hold of cooking oil as it's a vital ingredient in so many of the special dishes eaten during the month.
Ms Sammer sometimes finds herself travelling from her home in Blida to the nearby small town of Kolea, where fruit and vegetables are slightly cheaper.
Samiha Sammer has to rely on shopkeepers recognising her in order to get hold of cooking oil
These days potatoes are 30% more expensive than just a few months ago, and long queues for milk mean people queue before sunrise to secure some for their families.
"I've now stopped doing that as it involves pushing around crowds and sometimes fighting to get your share of the milk," the administration clerk says with a sigh. "It's humiliating."
But avoiding the crowds comes at a cost.
She now pays about 420 dinars ($2.90; £2.20) for 1kg of privately imported powdered milk instead of 25 dinars for the state-subsidised kind.
Algeria produces milk but only in small quantities, so for years it has relied on imports from France, other EU countries and more recently the United Arab Emirates - usually in the form of a powder that is liquified in local factories before reaching consumers.
What bothers Algerians most of all, though, is cooking oil.
Like milk, it is subsidised by the state, but even before the current crisis, the oil was already expensive - a five-litre bottle will set you back at least 600 dinars ($4.20; £3.20). Read More...
