Algeria keeps buying soft wheat despite an exceptional cereal harvest
Algeria’s OAIC has purchased 720,000 tonnes of soft wheat even as the country expects a historic cereal harvest. Domestic output is improving, but national cereal demand exceeds 12 million tonnes and production remains exposed to rainfall variability, costs and storage constraints.
OAIC returns to the market for 720,000 tonnes
Algeria’s state grains agency OAIC has concluded a purchase of 720,000 tonnes of soft wheat despite expectations of an exceptional domestic cereal harvest, TSA Algérie reported. The transaction underlines the continuing gap between local supply and national cereal requirements, which exceed 12 million tonnes.
Soft wheat is primarily used to make flour for bread, leaving Algeria dependent on foreign supply even in a strong harvest year. The final production figures are expected after 10 August, the official end of harvesting, as new CCLS collection centres transmit intake data directly to OAIC.
Durum wheat gains could reduce the import bill
Interior Minister Saïd Sayoud has announced a historic total cereal harvest of 5 million tonnes this year. The USDA separately projects Algerian wheat production at 3.2 million tonnes, 7% above 2025, alongside 1.35 million tonnes of barley, up 13%, and 12,000 tonnes of maize, unchanged from the previous year.
Algeria could nevertheless reach self-sufficiency in durum wheat this year. Durum, traditionally central to Algerian agriculture, is used for semolina and costs an average of one and a half times as much as soft wheat on the international market. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune estimated that eliminating this part of the import requirement could save more than $1.5 billion.
The strong harvest followed abundant, well-distributed rainfall, particularly decisive autumn precipitation that encouraged farmers to extend planting into December. State support for certified seed, fertiliser, machinery, fuel and seasonal credit also contributed. Debt rescheduling helped drought-affected farmers in western Algeria plant their land.
Storage, yields and costs remain constraints
The government is expanding collection and storage infrastructure under a programme approved in December 2023. It includes 350 collection centres. At Mascara, nine concrete cells being built by Cosider are designed to store one million quintals of wheat, while truck and harvesting-equipment convoys have strengthened logistics in the south.
Agricultural services are targeting yields of 20–30 quintals per hectare in northern provinces and 60–70 quintals per hectare in the south. Achieving those levels consistently will be difficult because Algerian farming faces irregular rainfall, disrupted crop cycles, ecosystem degradation and declining agricultural biodiversity, according to Tarik Hartani, director of the National Higher School of Agronomy.
Farm margins are also under pressure. Private contractors charge DA7,000 per hectare for harvesting, compared with DA6,000 through the CCLS. Straw prices have risen to DA50–60 per bale from DA20 in June, encouraging its sale instead of incorporation into the soil to preserve fertility.
Policy seeks more land and domestic technology
A strategic plan presented in 2023 proposes converting nearly 2.5 million hectares of fallow land to crop production, including cereals, over ten years. Part of Algeria’s cereal area currently lies fallow every other year and is used for sheep grazing, creating competition between grain production and livestock activity.
Research is another part of the response. Hartani announced the official registration of six Algerian cereal varieties—three durum wheat and three barley varieties. Together with better equipment access, conservation practices and improved organisation, such technology may help stabilise production. The latest soft wheat purchase shows, however, that one favourable harvest cannot yet remove Algeria’s underlying bread-wheat deficit.
