Algeria is continuing its policy of diversifying wheat suppliers in the context of political tensions with France, its main supplier.
Traditionally a large importer of French wheat, the Algerian Interprofessional Cereals Office (OAIC) is turning more and more towards wheat from the Black Sea, particularly from Russia. According to Yulia Koroliova, director of the Russian Cereal Quality Assessment Center, Algeria bought 250,000 tonnes of Russian wheat, reports Russia Beyond media.
Russia, which resumed its wheat exports to Algeria last June with a cargo of 28,000 tonnes after five years of absence, does not intend to stop there. She wants to increase her share in the very lucrative Algerian market. Initially, Russia is targeting the export of 700,000 to 800,000 tonnes of wheat to Algeria, according to the same media.
Algeria should import during the 2021-2022 season eight million tonnes against 7.5 million last season, according to the US Department of Agriculture, due to the 38% drop in its cereal production due to the drought that severely hit the country in 2021.
“It’s a big market, and we hope it will continue to grow,” she said.
To open its market to Russian wheat, the OAIC has modified its specifications to allow wheat from the Black Sea to tender to calls for tenders launched by Algeria, according to specialists.
In 2020, the state grain import monopoly changed the rate of bug damage to wheat from 0.5% to 1%. “The rate limit for pinched grains is set at 1% against 0.5% in its previous calls for tenders,” according to the specialist site Terre-net.
Criteria on the decline
Algeria, which was very demanding in terms of the quality of imported wheat, has revised its criteria downwards in the context of declining cereal production and rising wheat prices on the world market.
But also to reduce its dependence on French wheat. Last June, the Minister of Agriculture announced that the OAIC would initiate legal proceedings against an unscrupulous supplier, after the discovery of animal carcasses in a shipment of French wheat that was unloaded in the port of Oran.
The results of this investigation have not been made public, but this affair has dealt a heavy blow to French wheat. This situation is unlikely to improve due to political tensions between Algeria and France.
This latent crisis, of unprecedented magnitude, erupted in early October, after the remarks made by President Emmanuel Macron on the Algerian system and colonization. The French president had qualified the Algerian system as politico-military and questioned the existence of the Algerian nation before French colonization in 1830. These remarks provoked the anger of Algiers who recalled his ambassador to Paris and banned military planes from Operation Barkhane from flying over its territory.
