Скачать или смотреть Banana farmers in Algeria eye growing exports

(22 Jan 2020) LEAD IN:
Algeria's farmers have big ambitions for their banana plantations.
They want to cut the country's imports and even start exporting the tropical fruit.

STORY-LINE:
Algeria is known to be one of the largest banana importers in Africa.
Now, its local farmers could help change that.
Mustapha Maazouzi has been growing the fruit for decades on his farm in Algiers.
He wants to grow his family business.
"We import between 100,000 to 120,000 tonnes of bananas per year, that costs us about $200 million, it's just unimaginable. Bananas could be produced perfectly along the Algerian coast, in terms of quality, taste and quantity," he says.
Algiers has a Mediterranean climate with dry summers and mild, wet winters.
The Maazouzi farm uses greenhouses to control weather conditions for the banana plants.
"Banana production in Algeria is very much possible, we can reach self-sustainability, we can produce it along the coast of Algeria and go deep up to 15 kilometres (from the coast) under greenhouses, we create a special micro-climate for bananas with good humidity and heat conditions in order to allow to the banana plants to grow,"  says Anis Maazouzi.
The farm currently produces 300 tonnes of bananas per year.
But Maazouzi believes that his country can outgrow the banana production of tropical countries if local farmers get the support they need.
"We would like to cut imports and why not even start exporting bananas in larger quantities," says the farm's marketing manager Samiha Maazouzi.
Algeria has a total of seven banana producers, most are found in coastal cities such as Algiers, Tipaza or Jijel.
They are asking the government to support their farms and slow imports of the fruit.

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