Algeria Eliminates Taxes, Duties on US Corn and Co-products

After a three and a half year effort, in September 2012 the U.S. Grains Council, in cooperation with USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service – Algeria, successfully influenced the removal of the value added tax (VAT) and custom tax on all feed imports in Algeria, including corn, distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and corn gluten feed (CGF). Previously, the VAT and custom tax for DDGS and CGF had been set at 17 percent and 30 percent respectively, resulting in no U.S. DDGS or CGF exports to Algeria. The VAT and custom tax for corn was previously set at 7 percent and 5 percent.

Without the Council’s continuous efforts and support from allies in the Algerian feed industry, there is no way that products like DDGS and CGF would have been included in the list of feed ingredients that have had their duty and VAT reduced to zero.

The Council first became active in Algeria in 1986 and has conducted programs whenever the political situation has allowed. In May of 2009, the Council partnered with ONAB, Algeria’s quasi-governmental national poultry program, to conduct feeding trials on the inclusion of DDGS in broiler diets. The Council also has worked with ONAB and private sector feed companies and livestock producers to providing technical training and buying and pricing courses on U.S. corn co-products use. With the recent success the Council had in Morocco by reducing the VAT on DDGS, it brought Algerian government officials and key dairy and poultry industry players to Morocco in 2012 to see how their use of DDGS and CGF has developed over the years.

Because of these and other Council programs in Algeria, Algeria feed grain end-users and importers have continued to push their government as well to keep the import duties and VAT on DDGS and CGF at the reduced levels. During follow up meetings in June 2013 with Algerian government officials the Council learned that Algeria plans to extend the zero import duties and zero VAT through August of 2014. If and when import duties and VAT are reinstated in Algeria, we were assured that DDGS and CGF import duties and VAT would be set at the same levels as other imported feed ingredients at 7 percent and 5 percent respectively. In addition, the Council has learned that one of the key private sector feed companies that we have been working with on our training programs on how to use DDGS and CGF has made the first commercial purchase of DDGS and CGF by anyone in Algeria. A shipment of 550 MT of U.S. DDGS and 550 MT of U.S. CGF along with 4,200 MT of U.S. soybean meal will arrive in Oran port of Algeria in early August. Plus this same vessel will diver the same commodity products to customers involved in Council programs in Morocco and Portugal after partial unloading in Algeria, showing that this success has links to other U.S commodities and other neighbouring markets.