AgriFood Products Guide Exposes France’s Official Analysis About Algeria

An official document by the French Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, entitled “Where to Export Agro? -2024 Edition-” (a white book aiming to give French food producers opportunities to open up for export) showed that Paris still views Algeria as merely a market for selling the products of its companies active in the sector, far from any partnership or investment, as many French officials have tried to promote for years. It also revealed the size of the gap between the vision of the Italian partnership with Algeria and France’s official vision.

The export guide, a copy of which was checked out by Echorouk-, is dedicated to French agri-food producers and prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty to help them find all the market and sector information needed to support their international development. It contains 8 pages of keys deciphering global, European and French exports of wines, food products and agricultural and agri-food equipment, 20 thematic factsheets on key export sectors for France with the analyses of 40 countries and focuses dedicated to regulatory news.

The French AgriFood guide analysis of the Algerian market said that “what is known as branches outside the fuel sector, such as agriculture and the manufacturing industries for agricultural products, are considered the most strategic and receive priority by the Algerian authorities and these sectors benefit from state support to increase production, and it represents a real opportunity for French companies”.

The “white book” considered that the Algerian government’s measures to restrict imports and stimulate local production constitute a threat to French companies and that the fierce competition in the Algerian market is also considered a threat.

The guide appeared in what looked like French cheering due to the increase in the value of Algerian imports of agricultural products and food industries in 2022, with a capacity increase of 21.2% from France and an increase of 48.2% from the European Union, considering this as “one of the remarkable events.”

One of the events that the guide described as remarkable, which opens the opportunities for French companies to export to Algeria, is related to the cancellation of temporary additional protection fees (DAPS), for goods coming from the European Union and other regions such as Arab countries and the African continent.

The guide also welcomed the reopening of the import of dairy cows coming from France, in addition to fresh meat, and facilitating the import of used agricultural equipment and supplies.

On the other hand, there was clear French regret over the decline in its share in the supply of grains to Algeria due to competition from Black Sea products, especially Russia, Ukraine and Bulgaria, considering it an important market for French companies given the inability of Algerian domestic production to cover demand, especially soft wheat, as it is only sufficient to meet about 30% of Algerian consumption.

The document indicates that France is considered the first supplier to Algeria of grains, especially soft and hard wheat, barley and corn, in terms of value, and second behind Argentina in terms of quantity, and added that there is increasing competition from Central and Eastern Europe (Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Russia).

The French Ministry’s guide also thinks that the development of the activity of large spaces and major commercial centres in Algeria also provides important opportunities for exporting various companies’ products to this country, which reflects the purely marketing outlook of a French official body.

The revelation of the real French view of Algeria in the field of agriculture and food processing industries comes at a time when relations with Italy have reached very advanced levels, especially at the level of grain production, through its inclusion by Rome at the forefront of the African countries concerned with the “Enrico Mattei” project in its agricultural aspect of grain production in partnership with Bonifiche Ferraresi, listed on the Milan Stock Exchange.

At a time when official France sees Algeria as just a market for selling the products of its companies in the agricultural sector and food processing industries, and the need for these companies to have other shares in this market, the Italian partner moved to practical steps for production in Algeria, especially through grains across vast areas, in addition to energy and industrial partnership and other sectors as well.