Algeria are looking for offers to buy at least 50kt of durum today. The long term storage capability of durum has made it a firm favourite during lockdown for many EU families. This has seen an increase in demand across Europe and the USA. Italy alone saw an increase in pasta exports of around 60% over the last 12 months. In Europe alone demand for durum wheat had increased by around 500ktpa, close to 8.7mtpa thanks to the lockdown of spring 2020.
Italy was not the only major exporter to benefit, Turkey too saw pasta exports surge to 1.4mtpa in 2020.
The surge in durum consumption is not restricted to Europeans cooking more pasta at home during lock down though. A rise in consumption from N.African countries like Algeria is also a major contributor. For example the couscous market in Morocco. Morocco imports around 1mt of durum per year of which only 20% is used in the production of pasta, the rest is sold as semolina used for the production of couscous.
Algeria has seen some big increases in domestic wheat production but continues to import between 700k and 1.2mt of durum pa. Algeria consumes slightly more pasta than Morocco, durum semolina also goes into flat bread production. Algeria sets a base price for semolina which enables smaller mills to operate, catering to the production of flat breads at a local level.
Tunisia, like Italy, have laws in place stating that pasta and couscous must be made from 100% durum wheat. Quality demand is low and blending with imported product keeps prices down. Per capita semolina consumption is higher than most N.African countries. Making Tunisia an importer of roughly 500kt of durum per year, predominately for flat bread baking.