At 5bn litres per annum, Algeria’s demand for milk is far greater that its domestic supply of 2bn litres, representatives from the Irish dairy sector heard earlier this week.

At a conference hosted by Enterprise Ireland, key players in the Algerian dairy sector outlined how they saw the potential to develop partnerships with Ireland to improve their dairying enterprises.

Mohammed Sefari, director general at Safilait, a company which specialises in milk and dairy products, said that the delegation was here to scope out the opportunities for such partnerships.

Milk deficit

“We have a very big deficit in milk production and we want the experience of Irish farmers and experts to boost our production.

“There is a population of 40m in Algeria and they need 5bn litres of milk a year, however the country only produces 2bn a year,” he told the Irish Farmers Journal.

Algeria imports 325,000t of milk powder annually at a cost of $900m (€824m) per annum, he said.

Yields

“There is currently around 2m dairy cows in Algeria, 1m of which are of a local breed with not the best of yields, the other one million of which are a Holstein-type cow.

“We’re not getting the best yields from these cows. They produce 11 litres of milk a day,” he said.

Sefari attributed the problem to the poor quality of the feed the cows are getting, which for the majority is a mix of hay and concentrates and said that there’s a huge forage deficit in Algeria.

“If we can’t overhaul the forage production, we’ll never get [Algerian dairying] to where it needs to be.

“That’s why we’re here in Ireland, we know the story and we’re looking to see can we develop partnerships to address these issues.”

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