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Join on Telegram Rabat – The hashtag “Potato expert” is trending on social networks lambasting Algeria’s regime and its mismanagement of a structural domestic economic crisis and worsening food shortages.
The hashtag emerged after Ennahar TV, Algeria’s state media, hosted Soulaimani Farouk to discuss the economic crisis and shortage of food, including potatoes.
Ennahar’s choice of title for Farouk sparked laughter and mockery on social networks after the television channel described him as an “expert in potato products.”
Ever since, people on social networks used a screenshot of the expert to mock the television channel and Algeria’s regime.
“It is enough that the journalist convinced the editor in chief and director of the television channel to host the potato expert,” one Twitter user said.
كفاه الصحافي قنع فريق الاعداد ورئيس التحرير ومدير القناة ووو بلي راح يجيب خبير في البطاطا !!،، هاهاهاهاهاها هاهاهاهاهاها لو كان في بلاصتهم نبقى سمانة خاري بالضحك
— أبو سفيان (@badereddinemell) November 3, 2021
“Algeria went too far. An expert specialized in potatoes. I bet that if you give him a potato he will turn it into an apple, watermelon, and or a pear,” another one wrote.
عندهم خبير واحد ?، وتخصصه،?، البطاطا ? pic.twitter.com/qqs8eJca3I
— paul (@ChriCannes) November 3, 2021
Ennahar TV hosted the previously unknown expert to answer questions regarding the soaring prices of potatoes amid the economic crisis.
Algerian outlet Algeria Times mocked Ennahar, saying Algeria “became a joke to the world.”
العلم العلم
مشيتي بعييييد أخاي التبون
بقيتي غير غادي حتى جبتي الربحةعالم و مختص و باحث و خبير في تطوير البطاطا
هادا واقيلا تجيبلو بطاطا يردهالك تفاحة، دلاحة، إجاصة
ايييه نعاماس ???#المغرب_أولا #المغرب_ينتصر_في_مجلس_الامن #الصحراء_المغربية #الجزائر_اضحوكة_العالم pic.twitter.com/Wf20xveCW0— ?⭕التاريخ لا يرحم⭕? (@MrMorocco007) November 3, 2021
Algerian citizens often take to social media networks to complain about the prices of food products.
Echourouk Online reported that “there are no talks in Algerian streets other than prices of the soaring prices of potatoes,” presenting a “trauma” for Algeria’s vulnerable communities.
Citizens are also complaining about the quality of potatoes that are sold for increasingly high prices.
Algerie Part Plus discussed the crisis over increased imports of food products in Morocco, with data on November 2.
The news outlet said that prices for basic food products are rapidly rising, with bakers across the country warning that shortages of flour could spark a sudden increase in the price of bread as well.
Algerie Part Plus said that the Algerian government acknowledged the crisis, citing a lack of agricultural production.
In the face of the crisis, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune called on the government to resolve the crisis, instructing them to import vital food products in an effort to control rising prices.
