A comprehensive study held in Algeria regarding milk consumption shows that annual consumption per capita ranges between 120 to 150 liters, reported the Algerian newspaper, Al-Khabar. The study estimated milk demand by more than 2.12 million tons per year.
Local production covers only half of this amount, while imports continued to increase from $518.8 million in 2003 to $808.30 million in 2004.
As for the geographic distribution of milk production in Algeria, the study indicated that western regions produce 14% of the total milk production, while central regions responsible for 17% of total production. The eastern regions produce 55% of the total production, and southern regions produce 14%.
The study forecasts that shortage in local production would be doubled with the expected increase in demand. Thus local milk production is projected to cover only 27% of demand by 2010.
