Algerian MPs expose government’s lies on cooking oil crisis

The Algerian government has often said the country had a surplus in producing cooking oil blaming the scarcity of the product in the local market on speculation, but an inquiry by a parliamentary committee has exposed the government’s lies and its endemic use of conspiracy theories to justify failed policies.

Algerians have struggled for about one year with a rarity of cooking oil. The government first started by rationing the sale of the product and went as far as imposing ridiculous rules like banning the sale of cooking oil for people under 18 to stop people from using the under-aged to stockpile.

Algeria’s trade minister said that the needs of the local market were estimated at 1600 tons daily and that the country had a production surplus of 400 tons per day, blaming speculators for scarcity. Officials also blamed contraband, before deploying conspiracy theories blaming the “foreign hand”.

All of these arguments are fallacious, according to Ismail Kouadri, president of a parliamentary committee in charge of investigating the cooking oil crisis that leaves Algerians queuing for the basic product.

He said figures about Algeria’s production of cooking oil are “imaginary” as long as they are uncorroborated on the ground.

The same committee said that speculation cannot be held accountable for the rarity of cooking oil, adding that no one can speak of speculation where there is abundance as the government claims.

Besides cooking oil, Algerians are facing an acute shortage of vital medicine. The minister in charge has also maintained that there are no shortages and that medicine are available, at a moment Algerians suffer in hospitals lacking medicine.

North Africa Post, citing Algerian economists abroad, has on multiple occasions pointed that the cause of cooking oil and medicine shortage beside other basic goods is to be found in failed policies to diversify the economy.

Fearing an imminent dry out of state foreign exchange reserves, Algeria has adopted a drastic import cut policy which hit soja and other goods used in making cooking oil.

The policy has resulted in a slight trade surplus. But at the cost of leaving Algerians standing in queues unable to find one liter of cooking oil or vital medicine to save lives.