ALGERIA – Algeria’s (Marketing Year) MY2018/19 cereals production reached 6.05 million metric tonnes, a 74.4% increase compared to last year’s 3.47MMT, according to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), quoted in USDA’s September GAIN report.

The Ministry attributed the production level to favourable climatic conditions as well as government support through loans, seeds, equipment and other technical support for crops.

It was also helped by adequate rainfall as most of the grain production areas benefited from good precipitations, enabling good crop conditions.

Efforts by government to increase yields have proved productive given that cereal yields have increased from 0.8 MT/ha in the 1980’s to 1.2 MT/ha in 2000 to 1.9 in 2017.

This was helped by increased use of locally produced certified seeds for all grains as well as increased use of inputs, especially fertilizers.

Total wheat production for the period is estimated at 3.940 MMT that is, 3.15 MMT for durum and 790,000 MT for bread wheat while barley production stood at 1.950MMT.

Wheat imports for the year 2017/18 were revised upwards due to low production and for the current year, this is expected to fall to 8.2 MMT with barley imports estimated 522,000 MT for MY2017/2018.

Wheat, barley and oat production in Algeria has increased in the last nine years but still falls short of the 8 million tons needed for domestic consumption.

Barley consumption decreased in MY2017/2018 because the GoA removed the domestic resale price subsidy in 2017

Algeria unveiled a list of 877 banned imports, excluding grain and feed items such as wheat, barley and corn, soybeans and soybean meal.

In August 2018, a new decree was published to exempt feed grains and products for animal feed manufacture from value added-tax (VAT) improving the market opportunities for feed grains especially from the United States.

The Ministry of Agriculture embarked on a program to achieve self-sufficiency in durum wheat and pulses production by 2020, through the Algerian Office of Cereals (OAIC).

The OAIC is involved in cereal production as well as importing grains.

Algeria’s barley imports originate mostly from Europe and the Black Sea area.