Algeria steps up grain imports (bought almost a million tons of wheat on Wed), eyes Tunisia "virus"

[Turborama]

Source: Reuters

By Lamine Chikhi and Valerie Parent –

ALGIERS/PARIS (Reuters) – Algeria confirmed it bought almost a million tons of wheat on Wednesday and ordered an urgent speeding up of grain imports, a move seen heading off unrest over food prices as protests swept north Africa.

The energy exporting nation has scrambled to buy grain during a tumultuous month in the region which has seen Tunisia's President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali exile himself to Saudi Arabia and rare protests break out at home and in Egypt.

A rise in food prices in Tunisia, high unemployment and a widening gap between rich and poor combined to help spark deadly riots which brought down the ruling regime.

State grain buyer OAIC on Wednesday confirmed it bought 800,000 tons of wheat, bringing its bread wheat purchases since the start of January to at least 1.75 million tons. Over the past five weeks the north African state has in addition bought at least 800,000 tons durum wheat, used to make pasta.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110126/wl_nm/us_grains_algeria

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The 'bread compact'

The bread compacts which framed the political order in much of the Arab world came unstuck in the mid- to late-1980s.

In the 1960s, regimes committed to the distribution of bread (subsidised goods) in return for political passivity. In the 1980s, the new political fix shifted to giving the vote instead of bread. Who can forget the 1988 bread riots that eventually brought the Islamists to the verge of parliamentary control of Algeria in 1991? The riots in Jordan at around the same time inspired state-led political liberalisation in 1989.

For Tunisia, Algeria, Jordan and Egypt, the impoverished Arab states, in need of the liquidity of Euro-American and International Misery Fund aid, infitah (open-door policy) was the only blueprint of forward economic management. Within its bosom are bred greed, land grab, corruption, monopoly and the new entrepreneurial classes who exchange loyalty and patronage with the political masters as well as the banknotes and concessions with which both fund flash lifestyles.

Thus the map of distribution was gerrymandered at the expense of the have-nots who are placated with insufficient micro credits or ill-managed national development funds. The crumbs - whatever subsidies are allowed by the new economic order built on the pillars of privatisation, the absence of social safety nets and economic protectionism - delay disaffection but never eliminate it.

Below the surface the pent-up anger of the marginals simmers.

More: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/01/201111413424337867.html

Click on the banner for lots of reports on what's going on in Algeria.

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/spotlight/algeria/">

[somone]

1. They see the handwriting on the wall

[Turborama]

2. Morocco to boost staples subsidies "at any price"

Morocco, which heavily subsidises food and gas, on Tuesday promised to keep staples affordable at any price even if a surge in global prices of food and oil have a severe impact on its public finances this year.

Arab countries Algeria, Egypt and Yemen are confronting a wave of street protests inspired by a revolt that toppled Tunisia's president earlier this month.

"Prices of subsidised goods that are fuels, gas, flour, sugar, etcetra, are witnessing a sharp increase in international markets and this weighs heavily on the Compensation Fund funded from tax payers' money," said Communications Minister and government spokesman Khalid Naciri.

"It was very costly last year and we fear that under the current conditions ... the cost will be severe for Morocco ... We will protect citizens' purchase power at any price," he told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

Full article: http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFLDE70O1X520110125?sp=true

Another country trying to continue their "let them eat bread" strategy.

[Catherina]

3. Not good at all. Are these rulers so daft they don't understand what

food insecurity does to people?

Thank you. Rec'd