Soft wheat imports rose to 4.43 million tonnes from 2.97 million tonnes in the January-September period of 2010, while durum wheat purchases were 1.28 million tonnes, up from 1.23 million tonnes.

The total value of imports reached $1.17 billion in the January-September period of 2011 versus $941.98 million in the first nine months of 2010.

Algeria's domestic grain harvest fell to 4.56 million tonnes in 2010 from the previous year's record of 6.1 million tonnes. The output this year declined further to 4.2 million tonnes because of unfavourable weather.