Algeria signs $3.5 billion dairy production deal with Qatar

Algeria has signed a $3.5 billion deal with Qatar’s largest dairy producer Baladna, to create a large-scale cattle breeding farm for powdered milk, according to AFP. The project is projected to produce 200,000 tonnes of powdered milk which would fulfill around 50 percent of Algeria’s demand.

Spanning 170,000 hectares in Adrar province, the project will include a farm to grow cattle feed, milk and meat production facilities, and a powdered milk factory, the Algerian agriculture ministry said in a statement.

The deal was signed in Algiers between Souad Assous, head of agricultural and land investments at the Algerian agriculture ministry, and Mohamad Moutaz Al-Khayyat, Baladna’s chairman.

The project is intended to help alleviate Algeria’s recurring milk shortages and lessen the country’s dependence on imports powdered milk and other food products.

The project is expected to be up and running by 2026. It will supply the local market with meat and increase the national cattle population, the statement said. It will also create around 5,000 jobs.