At the Paris International Agricultural Show, which opened its doors on Saturday, February 25 at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center, visitors crowd around the Algerian stand.
There are many products on display: dates, citrus fruits, olive oil, preserves, spices or crafts.
Visitors taste dates or buy olive oil and preserves in glass jars. Beyond the tastings, contacts are also forged between Algerian farmers and potential foreign partners.
On the opening day, in the “World Agriculture” pavilion, there was real excitement around the Algerian participants. Here and there in the early morning, a few pallets wrapped in plastic film, feverishly open boxes, and shelves that everyone fills.
In a stand, an exhibitor search desperately for the box containing his flyers. In another, shelving is missing.
Visitors keep coming and are particularly interested in De glet nour dates from Algeria. A visitor asks: “And the oranges on display, can we taste them?” “Although three cases are visible at the back of the stand, polite refusal of the Gvapro exhibitor. It will be necessary to hold out until March 5, the end of the show. At the same time, the exhibitor takes a worried look at the stack of flyers.
Paris Agricultural Show: the Algeria stand attracts the crowd
The Algerian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is represented by the Group for the Valorization of Agricultural Products (Gvapro). Also present are: the national company for approval and technical control (ENACT), FrigoMedit which is the storage company and the Algerian red meat company (Alviar).
Gvapro manages 74 agricultural farms, some of which are involved in a public-private partnership, such as the Algerian Trading Company Mitidja (CATM), which produces fruit and vegetables and has modern sorting and packaging workshops.
The National Cattle Feed Office (Onab) is represented by its communications officer. This office is one of the only companies in the Algerian agricultural sector that attaches importance to its institutional communication. On the stand, samples of the office’s flagship products are presented: raw materials used and mineral vitamin supplements.
Nearby, in the same range of activities, is the agricultural branch of the private Tahraoui group. A group based in Biskra which has more than 400 hectares of open-field and greenhouse market gardening, palm groves and a packaging unit that can process up to 5 tons per day of fruit and vegetables that meet international standards.
Olive oil and dried figs
Many Algerian companies have come to present olive oil. While some have standard packaging, others display plastic containers or transparent glass bottles where opaque glass is essential.
The family business Tiwal Kingdom of Beni Maouche (Béjaïa) presents its traditional cold-pressed olive oil, dried olives in packets and the famous figs of Béni Maouche, the only product with Deglet Nour dates from Algeria that has a label. Originality, the dried figs are presented in vacuum packaging or in a jar with olive oil.
Very concerned about the quality of the products, Bouguider Elys, the company representative, indicates that he does not use sulfur-based fumigation or insecticides.
Spices and frik for chorba
Also present, the famous Maison Lahlou (pasta). A house which in 2005 won the gold medal for best couscous in Italy. Its quality comes from the fact that it is rolled by hand.
This family business created in 1999 in Frikat (Draâ El Mizan) was unable to present this flagship product due to export restrictions on wheat and its derivatives.
However, on the stand, samples of couscous with nettles and a whole range of frik, this toasted wheat essential for chorba, are on display. Frik is produced in the Biskra region and Maison Lahlou ensures its marketing.
The company El Sabah de Blida presents a whole range of preserves in jars: mechouia, peppers, pitted olives. A special feature: a pizza sauce packaged in a 4 kg metal box.
In the same vein, the dynamic Thala cannery (Tizi-Ouzou) offers a wide choice of canned goods in jars.
Further on, the Mushroom Bladi company in Béni Amrane (Boumerdes) offers mushrooms. Slices of oyster mushrooms packaged in trays or in powder form.
Journey through the Paris Agricultural Show
At lunchtime, crossing the Products and Flavors of France pavilion reserved for regional gastronomy and vine products is difficult. The stands are taken over by visitors.
Groups of young people roam the aisles with paper plates and cups. Sometimes the picnic is done on the floor on the carpet.
At the level of the Agricultural services and trades pavilion, although provided, the crowds are less. At the stand of Agritech Paris, the higher school of agronomy, is present a member of the French Academy of Agriculture.
Drawing on his memories, he says he ran a flavor factory in Tunisia and Algeria. “I supplied the Hamoud Boualem factory,” he confides proudly.
At his side, a former salesman who worked in Algeria: “I went there in the 1970s for an order for 1,000 mounted sprayers and 1,000 other trailed ones. We had never received such a large order. »
Near the Intercereals stand, meeting with an imposing ministerial delegation from West Africa. French officials explain the importance of the French cereal sector.
When asked about relations between the French sector and Algeria, one of the French officials confided to us: “This region of Africa represents 250 million inhabitants. Countries without great financial means. It’s not like Algeria. Algeria has money. The bulk of the delegation continues on its way under the watchful eye of the security officers in impeccable suits.
Chickpea cookies
Stop near the French oilseed sector stand. A simple table on which are placed packets of cookies and jars of spread. Originality, these products are made from pulses.
A young engineer explains that the biscuits come from his company and that they contain 50% chickpea flour and 50% wheat. As for the spread, a young woman indicates that they are also made up of chickpeas and fava beans.
Visitors taste it and reserve themselves: “It’s awfully good,” says one of them, adding: “It tastes like chestnuts.”
Asked about his business, the young investor explains that he left the Dijon school of agronomy and specialized in food extrusion, a new industrial process.
“I first produced chickpea curly using an extruder,” he tells us. He adds that he has colleagues specialized in the use of food extruders who travel the world and who would eventually be ready to come to Algeria if investors asked them to.
Back to the Algeria stand. The crowd is at its height and the boxes of Deglet Nour from Algeria offered for tasting are well underway.
Nearby, the Tunisia stand. No official representation, but 4 private companies and one public which have joined forces to be present in Paris. Orange, dates, bottle of prickly pear seed oil at 50 euros, spices and olive oil.
Further on is the Morocco stand with presentation of dates and argan oil. A stand in front of which resounds from time to time the deafening percussions of a musical troupe made up of “drebki”.
