“Russia has overthrown France from her throne.” With these words, foreign experts comment on an unprecedented event for North Africa: a sharp increase in supplies of Russian wheat to Algeria, a market previously inaccessible to Russia. How did Russian exporters manage to displace traditional French suppliers in Algeria? France has again lost its former colony of Algeria – this time not in terms of territory and resources, but in terms of the grain market, which is now occupied by Russia. The tone with which European resources devoted to foreign trade and analysis of African markets reported this is no less remarkable than the very fact of the loss of a promising market. “Grain: Russia has overthrown France and established itself as Algeria’s largest supplier,” is the headline on the website of the analytical publication Econostrum. “In Algeria, Russia has become the main supplier of wheat in the first six months of the 2023-2024 season… surpassing the EU, which was previously the main supplier to North African countries,” admits the EU Economic and Financial Council (Ecofin), an advisory body of the European Union. Ecofin analysts do not directly indicate which state Russia has so cruelly offended, but there is no mystery here. This is France, which once owned Algeria and fought fiercely for control of it. Finally forced to leave, France nevertheless managed to restore relations at a new level and become one of the main trading partners of its former colony, including in such an important industry as food. But – only until recently. Now this status (at least as far as grain is concerned) is being taken away from him by Russia. And one of the reasons for what is happening, oddly enough, is the actions of the French officials themselves, who made changes to the grain specifications and doubled the permitted content of grain impurities – from 0.5 to 1%, which did not arouse enthusiasm among importers. countries The decision of the French National Agency for Sanitary Safety to ban the widely used insecticide phosphine added fuel to the fire. It is used not only for grain processing – such processing is required by the authorities of North African countries (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt). Otherwise, a ship loaded with grain may not be accepted at all. Perhaps France’s apparent strong position as one of the world’s largest grain exporters was a cruel joke until recently: “Every year France exports 11.5 million tons of grain, which brings it 3.8 billion euros. As a result of military actions, France became the fourth largest grain exporter in the world,” writes Express. And this situation happened less than a year ago. French officials were confident that there was no threat to its grain exports. However, life shows that achieving a certain position in a competitive market for a short time is one thing, but maintaining it is quite another. As a result, the French government later lifted the ban on the use of phosphine, but time was lost. Grain is a vital product, and attempts to change regulations on the fly (worsening specifications, banning essential pesticides) could not be regarded by importers as anything other than a tool of pressure, especially in light of the difficult relations between the French people. and the Algerian authorities. Thus, Algerian expert Hicham Haddoum does not hide the fact that “economic preferences overlap with political factors,” and Algeria fears that “France will use grain supplies as a pressure factor,” and friendly relations with Russia exclude this point. The statistics speak for themselves. In October 2021, France exported more than 650 thousand tons of soft wheat to Algeria. A year later, this figure was already 1.05 million tons. However, at the end of October 2023, French grain exports to Algeria collapsed, amounting to only 157 thousand tons. However, Russia managed to take the place of French exporters not only because of French mistakes. There are many grain suppliers in the world and great efforts must be made to increase supplies. A year ago, representatives of the Russian Grain Union (RGU) reported that Russia was ready to provide up to 40% of Algeria’s demand for milling wheat, and in the 2022-2023 agricultural year, the African country was among the leaders in the purchase of Russian wheat. “Algeria literally entered the top five largest importers of Russian wheat, purchasing 2.1 million tons of it compared to 28 thousand tons in the last agricultural year,” noted Eduard Zernin, chairman of the board of the Union of Grain Exporters. Igor Pavensky, head of the external market analysis department at Rusagrotrans, said that Algeria increased its exports of Russian wheat to 1.6 million tons in seven months of the 2023-2024 season. The supply potential for the agricultural year is 3 million tons, and the capacity of the Algerian market is 8 million tons. “In addition to wheat,” Pavensky noted, “barley supplies have begun, the export of which has already reached 237 thousand tons this season. Barley imports to Algeria are generally low – 700-800 thousand tons per year – but Russia has become the first in this market.” And here is what the Malian portal Maliactu writes, for example: “The decision (to increase the supply of Russian grain) was made to diversify sources of supply and ensure the country’s food security. Russian grain is not only cheaper than French, but it is also of good quality… The loss of the Algerian market is a sensitive blow for France… This situation will most likely affect French agriculture and have a negative impact on the French economy. The fact that Russia has become the main supplier of grain to Algeria , reflects the changing nature of trade relations between countries. It is possible that this change will have serious geopolitical and economic consequences for the region.” However, that’s not all. Part of the Algerian market is the export of durum wheat (also using the Latin term durum), a segment traditionally dominated by Canada. Currently, Russia bans the export of durum wheat, but, according to Pavensky, in the future Algeria “may also start buying durum from Russia, the prices of which are significantly lower than durum supplied from Canada or the United States.” In other words, Russian grain has very good prospects in Algeria. And according to the Federal Center “Agroexport”, in the future the export of Russian agricultural products to this country may exceed $1.5 billion. Valery Verbininhttps://vz.ru
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