2024-10-10 22:10:00
It’s a tender that gets people talking. Algeria has opened a consultation for the purchase of 50,000 tons of wheat. Nothing exceptional so far. Except that French exporters were not kept informed. A process reminiscent of the blacklist.
If we stick to what has been said, French exporters have no reason to worry. Algeria has never officially declared that it no longer wants to obtain wheat from France. But in reality it is another story: the latest tender announced by Algeria at the beginning of the week for the purchase of 50,000 tonnes of wheat did not reach the desks of French operators, who are usually kept informed.
A very unusual process
What’s worse, according to Reuters, those contacted were told not to respond by offering French wheat. An unusual indication: the Algerian Interprofessional Cereals Office is not in the habit of specifying the origin it wants. It is the trader who, depending on the market, supplies the grain compatible with the country’s needs, whose origin can sometimes even change along the way.
The blue-white-red grains have a quality consistent with that required by Algeria, and offer guarantees in terms of delivery security. On the other hand, French wheat today costs more than Russian wheat, 15 dollars more per ton. Many considerations that come into play and which are generally studied when tender notices are received, but which are not decided upstream. But this is what is happening today. “ France is avoided from the start » explains Gautier Le Molgat, general director of the consultancy company Argus Media France.
Clear field for Russian wheat
Hence the feeling of being faced with a principled position from Algeria even if things have not been said clearly. This state of affairs – which some analysts say reflects the deterioration of diplomatic relations between the two countries – is a blow to the morale of French exporters who already have much less wheat to sell this year – 60% less outside the EU – due to the ‘a historic decline in production.
Already two years ago Algeria had modified its specifications in the direction of a “more”. great opening to Russian wheat. The trial on display these days may just be another version of the same story. That of a complicated Franco-Algerian relationship that will perhaps benefit from the abundant and competitive grain of the Black Sea for another year.
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