Abstract
The Maghreb countries (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) have experienced since the early 1950s a rapid demographic growth coupled to a significant rhythm of urbanization. This has led to a marked increase in the demand of dairy products. In order to secure the supply, specific policies have been implemented. They mainly consisted in the establishment of a dairy industry, based on the processing of either raw milk produced locally (in Morocco and Tunisia) or imported milk powder (in Algeria). These divergent options have had significant consequences on the whole organization of the dairy chains in these countries, from cattle rearing practices, to milk collection and processing. They have also implied differences in milk and its derivatives’ prices and levels of consumption. The paper draws a comparative analysis of milk chains within the three countries: a supply mainly based on imports in Algeria, whereas in Morocco and Tunisia, the demand is satisfied by a chain relying on locally produced cattle milk. The paper also emphasizes on the future challenges that will have to be addressed: a rising volatility of milk and other strategic inputs’ prices (feed, machinery, cattle, etc.) in global markets, an improvement in consumers’ awareness about milk quality, a further pressure on natural resources (mainly soils and water) to get more raw milk, in countries already suffering an acute water stress. The article also establishes recommendations about specific issues related to the development of the dairy chains in the context of North Africa. These are mainly linked to the fragmented offer induced by numerous smallholder farms, which implies obvious difficulties to assess the hygienic and the chemical quality of milk batches delivered daily. Moreover, this fragmented offer also means that specific support programs will have to be designed, as the vast majority of farms are not dairy specialized, expecting both milk and calf crop from their herds.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/2193-1801-2-162) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Located in the Northern fringes of Africa, the Maghreb countries (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) have a long tradition with dairy products’ consumption
The current study aims to show the most recent trends and future prospects of the dairy chains in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia
The dairy chains in the Maghreb countries represent important players in the global dairy market, because of the leading position of the Algerian imports of milk powder. These dairy chains will continue to grow, as a response to the demographic expansion and the expected improvement of the per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which will certainly induce a diversification in the dairy products’ consumption towards more high value derivatives. To achieve such a growth, more raw milk will be needed, which implies the implementation of sustainable dairy cattle systems
Summary
Located in the Northern fringes of Africa, the Maghreb countries (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) have a long tradition with dairy products’ consumption. In Morocco, the irrigated regions which represent less than 15% of the total arable land contribute to up to 60% of the total annual output of milk (MAPM 2011) Animal resources Another important characteristic of the dairy production in the Maghreb area is the reduced contribution of non cattle species to the overall output. Cattle numbers vary significantly among the Maghreb countries: respectively 1.6, 2.8 and 0.6 millions in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia These figures showed very slight evolutions in recent years (Figure 1), as the official policies in the three countries encourage an improvement of the average milk yield per cow rather than the increase in the number of cattle.
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