After the summer harvests, wheat-producing countries begin to draw up an initial inventory of their exports. In the case of the French sector, the professionals look sad. In question, in particular the weakness of exports to Algeria and their repercussions on the French trade balance.
FranceAgriMer, the public establishment under the supervision of the French Ministry of Agriculture, confirms these days the absence of exports of French cereals to Algeria, one of the largest wheat importers in the world.
Why does Algeria import less wheat from France?
An observation which concerns exports of recent months but also those to come. The newspaper La FranceAgricole takes up these concerns and cites in particular Benoît Piétrement, the president of the FranceAgriMer Specialized Cereal Markets Council.
For this professional, the explanation lies in two factors: “tense” diplomatic relations between the two countries and “competition from other producing countries in relation to the French origin has been able to set in since the poor harvest of 2016”.
Still, according to Benoît Piétrement, “the Algerian market is almost completely closed to French origin” despite the fact that “French exporters continue to offer offers, but Algeria does not make any purchases of French wheat”.
Faced with the uncertainty of the world market, for its part the Algerian Interprofessional Cereals Office (OAIC) favors the diversification of its sources of supply. In July 2022, Nacerddine Messaoudi, the secretary general of the office, declared to the APS agency: “We went from 22 to 32 suppliers”.
In October 2024, following information from the British agency Reuters and specialized French sites on the exclusion of French wheat from an Algerian call for tenders, the OAIC published a press release indicating that “the information, disseminated by certain European media, regarding the alleged exclusion of certain suppliers from the restricted list, in accordance with the OAIC’s internal procedures, was unfounded.
Fear for the French trade balance
The president of the FranceAgriMer Specialized Cereal Markets Council looks back on the volumes of the last wheat harvest in France.
Falling quantities due to difficult weather conditions: “This year, it is a lesser evil, because few volumes are available, but this risks posing a problem in subsequent years, as the situation does not seem to be improving.”
The General Association of Wheat Producers (AGPB) is also concerned about the drop in French exports. This is around 9.7 million tonnes (Mt).
“Compared to a figure of 15-16 Mt usually, this represents a clear drop,” notes Philippe Heusele, the secretary general of the AGPB during meetings with the specialized press.
A decline which is not without consequences for France’s trade balance. “In 2022, cereal exports represented 11 billion euros in revenue. The following year, this figure dropped to 6.5 billion euros, and it will be even lower in 2024,” he says.
French wheat victim of strong competition from Ukrainian wheat
The French sector also has to deal with competition from Ukrainian wheat. The AGPB renewed its request for the reinstatement of customs duties on imports from Ukraine
-This wheat producers’ union is concerned about the volumes of Ukrainian imports to the European Union (EU).
Philippe Heusele of the AGPB is alarmed that: “During 2021, Ukraine exported 150,000 t of soft wheat to the EU. In 2023, this figure would rise to 7,000,000 t.”
The cause comes down to the removal of customs duties of €95/tonne on Ukrainian wheat following the outbreak of war with Russia in February 2022.
Today, declares the president of the French cereal producers, “grain flows are flowing more or less normally from Ukraine now, and there is therefore no reason to maintain this exemption”. A declaration which comes in a context of threats from peasant unions to block Paris with their tractors.
Algerian sector, produce more wheat to import less
Beyond its diversification of its suppliers, Algeria has embarked on a program to revive cereal production (wheat, barley, corn) through the development of cereal cultivation in the south under pivot and in a increased support for farmers in the north of the country. Support which was further demonstrated through compensation for farmers affected by the 2023 drought.
Various foreign companies producing inputs are associated with this cereal development program. This is the case of the Timac Agro subsidiary of the French group Roullier for fertilizers or Bayer, Basf, Syngenta for phytosanitary products and seeds.
The challenge for the Algerian cereals sector is to increase yields, as highlighted on several occasions by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
Today, the local potential for researchers specializing in agronomy is significant. Last November, Ali Daoudi of the National Higher School of Agronomy of El Harrach expressed the wish on Algerian Radio for greater coordination between the university and agricultural services.
He pointed out that in the absence of this coordination, “the university had a tendency to atomize its work”, a situation which did not allow it to accumulate results in “a particular sector”.
He therefore called for a “federation of efforts around priority issues”.
Between the search for better integration of sheep breeding with cereal cultivation with the aim of preserving soil fertility or the interest of rapeseed in rotations as a means of combating weeds in cereal areas, the questions are numerous and complex.
A way to produce more cereals and therefore be less dependent on imports, wherever they come from.
