Algeria Agriculture Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2023 - 2028)

Algeria Agriculture Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2023 - 2028)

Agriculture in Algeria is poised to grow at a CAGR of 2.4% during the forecast period.

• Algeria is currently the largest country in Africa and in the Arab world, with a total landmass of 2.38m sq. km. Algeria is rich in natural resources but is still largely unexplored. Despite this, Algeria’s overall strategy is to reduce its reliance on imports. The Algerian agriculture sector has recorded steady growth, despite numerous ups and downs. Algeria is technically able to produce 30 million tons of cereals per annum and export 21 million tons of them to neighboring countries.
• In 2021, the Ministery of Agriculture announced plans to expand Algeria's wheat-planted area to 3.5 million hectares whereas 1.8 million hectares of agricultural land were under wheat cultivation. Moreover, the areas used for barley and olives were, respectively, 978 thousand and 439 thousand hectares in the same year. Smaller land areas were devoted to other main agricultural outputs in the country, such as wheat, barley, potatoes, oats, dates, and grapes. Palm trees cover 72,000 hectares.
• The country also produces olive oil and tobacco.Women make up about 24.5 percent of the farming population. About 70 percent of the country's farms are of small size ranging between 0.1 and nearly 10 hectares. The government of Algeria is pursuing agriculture development and modernization as a means of diversifying the economy and attracting foreign and domestic investments. Government policies and programs to increase domestic production, privatization of the seed sector, and investment in agricultural infrastructure are the major drivers for the market.
• The move towards large-scale farming and win-win partnership with well-seasoned foreign investors like The Netherlands should also help achieve those targets, and potentially drive up the exports quantity of locally produced goods at a large scale, especially as Algeria is a prominent member of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and can, therefore, be depicted as an effective gateway to sell goods and products in this tremendous integrated market of 1.2 billion inhabitants.

Algeria has different public organizations and non-public organization that carries out research in the field of agriculture that contributes to the growth of the country. Algeria has different farmer association that contributes a lot to agriculture in the country. The Algerian Minister of Agriculture (MoA) is relying heavily on the development of the cereal sector. Modernizing the irrigation system will mitigate water stress. The goal is to increase yields between 50 and 60 quintals/hectare. For the vegetable oil sector, Algeria imports more than USD 1.3 billion oil/year. As such, rapeseed is being cultivated in the north on more than 3,500 hectares.

The highest share in the economy’s performance led the government to consider the agricultural sector a priority sector. The government is putting huge efforts to attract foreign and domestic investments to reduce the country’s reliance on imports. As part of its effort to boost the agricultural sector, the government is offering incentives on taxes, including farming concessions, and free long-term leases of farmland to foreign investors and local counterparts. Potato culture uses local seeds which cover 80% of domestic demand. The strategy aims to reduce the import of some varieties of seeds, regulate the market, supply potatoes to processing units, and promote exports.

The Ministry is organizing production zones across the country, to map agricultural areas, by 2030. For instance, in September 2020, the Algerian Minister of Agriculture (MoA) presented the Algerian Agriculture Roadmap 2020-2024, which offers opportunities for exporters and investors despite its overall objective to reduce imports. The opportunities are mainly focused on wheat, milk powder, soybean meal, corn, food and beverage ingredients, animal feed, pulses, tree nuts, almonds, and wood. The favorable legislative policies and increasing investments are driving the agriculture market.

In Algeria, 70% of farmers own and operate small to middle-scaled farms of less than 10 hectares. In Africa, in 2020, watermelon accounted for 5.4% of the harvested area devoted to vegetable production, contributing 5% to world watermelon production. Algeria is the leading watermelon producer in the continent (1.87 million units per year), sixth in the world, contributing 1.6% to worldwide production, followed by Egypt (1.7 million units yearly), eighth in the world. Watermelon production systems differ depending on agro-climate, from greenhouses to an open field with varying levels of technological application. In most rural communities, watermelon is grown as an intercrop with minimal inputs.

According to FAO, in 2021, citrus fruit production in Algeria was 1.51 million metric tonnes. The production of Primary fruits was observed at 6.83 million metric ton in the year 2021. According to FAO, dates are one of the major fruits produced in Algeria, which accounted for 1,188,803 metric ton of production in 2021 compared to 1,151,909.3 metric ton in 2020.

In order to reduce the reliance on imports, the Algerian government is offering incentives on taxes, including farming concessions, and free long-term leases of farmland to foreign investors and local counterparts. The country has been revolutionizing its technology sector in the field of agriculture by adopting soil-less farming like hydroponic techniques to increase fruits production. Hence, all these factors contribute to the increased production of fruits in the country.

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