Ongoing drought boosts Algeria’s cereal imports

Algerian wheat and barley imports look set to remain at elevated levels in the 2024-25 marketing year with a delayed plant, below-average rainfall and poor soil-moisture conditions season to date expected to result in production similar to last year’s poor harvest. Algeria was hit hard by drought throughout the 2022-23 growing season (equivalent to the 2023-24 marketing year), which began with seeding of the wheat and barley crops through October, November and December of 2022 and concluded with harvest in May, June and early July last year. The seedbed was dry when the crops were planted, and soil-moisture conditions remained well below average through to the cusp of harvest. Rain finally fell in late May and early June, leading to devastating localised flooding, some winter-crop losses, and extensive quality downgrades. The Algerian Ministry of Agriculture has yet to release any official 2023 harvest data, but a vague press release late last year pegged production at 30 million ...