Health scandal: Should Morocco stop importing Algerian dates?
The case of the toxicity of Algerian dates is controversial in Algeria and undermines the authorities, so much so that a journalist was imprisoned for an article which highlighted the health problems of the Algerian date sector. This case demonstrates a new authoritarian drift of Algerian power and the extinction of freedom of expression in the country. Following this scandal, should Morocco, the second largest importer of Algerian dates worldwide, suspend its import?
The journalist of the Arabic-language daily Echourouk, Belkacem Houam, was placed under arrest warrant on Thursday September 8 for an article he published on September 7, concerning a decision to ban the export of Algerian dates following the case of the recall of several batches sent to Europe.
Belkacem Houam mentioned a sectoral meeting held at the Ministry of Commerce which stemmed from the protest of Algerian date exporters in the face of the recall of their products this summer. Exporters have denounced archaic regulations to the authorities, which have led to significant financial losses.
The article in question talks about this meeting which would have been held on August 29 and the journalist mentions well-informed sources. The Algerian government did not wait to react by press release and immediately ordered the imprisonment of the journalist.
The Algerian authorities have once again demonstrated their abusive practice of arbitrary detentions and political pressure exerted on journalists who no longer have the right to express themselves on pain of imprisonment.
Yet Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune denies that there are political prisoners in the country, but proof that the subject is sensitive in the country, the visit of the UN observation mission on human rights which was to going to Algeria in September has just been postponed once again.
Sulphurous reaction from the Algerian authorities
In a statement made public the same day as the publication of Echourouk's article, the Department of Commerce Kamal Rezig categorically denied the information from the Arabic-language media.
"The article in question is based on baseless and unjustified information that harms the national economy and the wealth that abounds in our country", notes the ministry, before adding that "the quality of Algerian dates is appreciated all international levels.
He denounced the "behaviour" of the journalist described as "unprofessional". This article "is in no way based on an investigation or on reliable information provided by the services of the ministry", indicates the same source
And finally adds that the efforts of the ministry "are mainly focused on the promotion and encouragement of non-hydrocarbon exports".
The Algerian authorities have made it clear that the date sector is important for Algeria because it is the pillar of non-hydrocarbon commercial activities, at a time when the Algerian economy is based on the economy of rent. .
It should be noted that Algeria is one of the top 5 date producers in the world. In 2021, the date sector produced 77,000 tonnes for 80 million dollars, according to figures from the Algerian Ministry of Commerce.
Attack on freedom of expression
This relentlessness against journalists was denounced by one of the few Algerian politicians to still dare to speak out. The former Minister of Communication and ex-Ambassador of Algeria in Madrid, Abdelaziz Rahabi, used strong words to criticize the authoritarian turn taken by his country.
The minister said he was "shocked" to learn the news of the journalist's imprisonment, saying that freedom of expression in Algeria is "threatened by the persistence of political and judicial harassment", in a statement to the press.
"The government was entitled to deny in the forms used in all the media of the modern world", without having to resort to its imprisonment or legal proceedings.
"The deprivation of liberty following the publication of information of a purely commercial nature is proof of the persistence of the political instrumentalization of justice and is a matter of practices from another age that we thought were over," said he estimated, affirming that the imprisonment of Kamal Rezig "does not constitute an isolated act".
In this regard, he cited the imprisonment of two journalists from Liberté Algérie "for reasons that relate to political harassment against a daily forced to disappear", and underlined that the daily El Watan "is under the same pressure and could in turn disappear from a media field reduced to its simplest expression as a spokesperson for the official voice without any real impact on informed public opinion that is more globalized than its leaders".
Toxicity of Algerian dates
The Algerian dates affair took on all this magnitude following a health scandal that led to the return of 3,000 tonnes of dates of the Deglet Nour variety, decided by the French health authorities this summer.
These dates “unfit for consumption” according to European standards have suffered the same fate in other countries in the European area. According to the national coordinator of Algerian date exporters Messaoud Bousnina, quoted in an interview with the newspaper Echourouk, the recall of batches of daAlgerian heads would have started as early as May 2021. According to him, the recalls concerned destinations in Europe, Canada and the United States.
The national coordinator of Algerian date exporters estimated that producers are paying the price for "the anarchic use of chemical substances" and the non-compliance by the Algerian authorities with the standards updated by the World Health Organization (WHO). .
These chemical substances detected in Algerian dates in France are "a reality that the authorities refuse to accept and to change", he said.
This is in particular Diflubenzuron, an insecticide banned by the European Union, but which is still applied in the protocol of the Algerian Ministry of Agriculture.
The repressed Algerian dates (of different brands) tested positive for Diflubenzuron, and the analyzes also concluded the presence of sulfur dioxide allergens, a substance causing some complications in the state of health of asthmatics, indicates the French government Reminder Conso quoted by the Algerian press.
According to Bousnina, the analyzes carried out on dates intended for export "indicated the presence of toxic chemical residues at 400%".
This information impacts the date sector, which should suffer heavy losses if the case is generalized to Algerian customers because of the failures of the Algerian authorities to update their insecticide protocol.
On Ennahar TV, Ahmed Mokrani, the director of the organization of markets and commercial activities at the Algerian Ministry of Commerce announced that Algeria has no less than 230 date exporters and that the main importers are in order, France , Morocco, Spain, Germany, Russia, United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh, Belgium and Mauritania.
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