ALGERIA – Russia could ship 2.5 million tonnes of wheat to Algeria by the end of the 2023/2024 campaign which ends in June next year, according to Eduard Zernin, head of the Russian Association of Wheat Exporters.
Zernin revealed this while speaking to the Interfax agency on the sidelines of a trade mission to the North African country.
Algeria is the second largest market for wheat in Africa behind Egypt.
The USDA predicts that the country’s wheat consumption will be 11.15 MMT for the 2022/23 season, most of which comes from imports.
Although domestic production has improved over the years, it remains weather-driven and does not meet domestic demand. Barely a third of its local consumption is met by local production, hence, the main world exporters are jostling for this destination.
According to Mr. Zernin, wheat shipments to the second largest consumer of the commodity on the African continent have so far shown an interesting dynamic which suggests performance at the end of the financial year.
Indeed, he indicates, a volume of 1.3 million tonnes of Russian wheat has been landed on Algerian soil since the start of the season last July compared to only 340,000 tonnes during the same period in 2022/2023.
“Algeria is one of the largest wheat importers in the world and an important market for Russia with volumes sent increasing each season.”
Mr. Zernin underscores that the progress recorded is linked to direct contacts established within the framework of grain diplomacy initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture, the Federal Agroexport Center, and the Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance Service [Rosselkhoznadzor.
In 2022, Russia exported around 1.3 million tonnes of wheat to Algeria which is four times what Algeria imported from Russia in 2021 according to the Russian news agency Interfax.
According to Eduard Zernin, head of the Russian Association of Wheat Exporters, the dynamism of shipments is notably linked to the good quality-price ratio of the Russian cereal which allows it to be competitive compared to European competitors, including France.
