A total of nine Andalusian companies in the sector of the auxiliary industry of agriculture participate from this past Monday and until this Wednesday in a direct commercial mission to Algeria organized by the Ministry of Economy and Knowledge, through Extenda-Andalusian Agency of Foreign Promotion , in which they will hold more than one hundred business meetings with operators from the North African country.

With this commercial mission, which has the support of the Antena de Extenda in Algiers, the Andalusian firms will be able to know the characteristics of the Algerian agricultural sector, present their offer to leading commercial agents in the country and identify the business opportunities that this market offers for the auxiliary industry of agriculture and olives of Andalusia.

In this sense, as noted by Extenda in a note, the Andalusian delegation will visit the cities of Oran, Mostaganem and Algiers, where they will meet with some of the main agents of the industry of the auxiliary industry of local agriculture, such as the Chambers of Agriculture of the provinces of Mostaganem and Oran or the Forum Chefs d’Entreprises (FCE).

In addition to the bilateral meetings with companies and institutions convened during the three days of the mission, on Monday, February 12, Andalusian firms visited agricultural farms and greenhouses representative of the Mostaganem area to know directly the local practices of agricultural production, the needs of farmers and encourage the exchange of knowledge.

The Andalusian companies that participate in the commercial mission to Algeria called by Extenda come mostly from Almería (Inagro Gestión Agrícola, Alarcontrol and Maher Applied Electronics); and Málaga (Hidroponia del Coco and Fercampo SAU – Grupo Fertiberia).

Also they go to the mission signatures of Granada (JFJ Machinery and Assemblies), Seville (J. Juvasa), Cádiz (Establecimientos Hefe) and Córdoba (Engineering and Technical Management Agroindustrial). The organization of this action by Extenda will be co-financed with funds from the European Union through the P.O. Feder de Andalucía 2014-2020, endowed with a community contribution of 80 percent.

OPPORTUNITIES IN ALGERIA

According to Extenda, Algeria is a country with great potential for agricultural production and olive oil, and is increasingly focused on improving local production both for domestic consumption and for export to other markets in the African continent.

Agriculture generates, including the agri-food industry, almost ten percent of the country’s GDP, which is why, since 2000, it has become a priority for the Government to diversify its economy, still dominated by oil production. In this line, the Algerian authorities have established a National Agricultural Development Plan (PNDA) for the renewal of agriculture, the expansion of agricultural land and reactivate agricultural investment in improving productivity.

The modernization of farms offers a good opportunity to foreign operators and the perception of the Spanish product is positive. In particular, there are business opportunities for the sectors of agricultural machinery, parts and components, phytosanitary products, fertilizers, seeds and plants, irrigation and greenhouse solutions.

As for the olive sector, in 2015 Algeria was ranked as the seventh country in the world in terms of production of olive oil. The production systems are very archaic and traditional, so the Algerian Government has projects and development plans for the sector and the producers are modernizing factories and manufacturing equipment.

EXPORTS OF THE SECTOR

The agricultural auxiliary industry of Andalusia maintains an outstanding position in the whole of Spain, with sales reaching in the first eleven months of 2017 a value of 589 million euros, which represents a growth of 5.9 percent with respect to the same period of the previous year.

This increase reinforces the progression of sales in the sector in the current decade (2010-2016), when they have risen by 32 percent to reach the record figure of 602 million in exports in 2016. In addition, the sector has remarkably consolidated its export fabric in this period, since the number of regular exporting companies (four years in a row exporting) has grown by 60 percent to reach 309 firms in 2016, which encompass 79 percent of the sales of the sector in said year.

In the period from January to November 2017, Almería is the first exporting province of the Andalusian sector, with 138 million, 23.9 percent of the total and an increase of 8.9 percent over the same period of 2016; followed by Seville, with 116 million, 20.5 percent of the total and growth of 23 percent; and Córdoba, with 103 million, 17.7 percent of the total. In fourth and fifth place are Malaga, with 62 million, 10.7 percent and the largest increase in this period, 32 percent more; and Jaén, with 55 million, 9.5 percent and boom of 12.4 percent.

Andalusia’s agriculture auxiliary industry has markets on five continents, including its first ten global destinations, an important diversification that gives strength to the sector. Algeria, in ninth place in the ranking, is the second destination of the top ten to which exports grow most in the period from January to November, doubling and reaching 14.8 million, 2.6 percent of the total.

Its two first markets are European: France, with 113 million in sales from January to November 2017, 19.6 percent of the total; and Portugal, with 85 million, 14.6 percent of the total. In third place is Morocco, the first non-EU market, with 36 million, 6.3 percent of the total; followed by Russia, with 33 million, 5.6 percent, that the fate of the top ten that grows more in this period to triple its data; and the United Kingdom, with 31 million, 5.6 percent of the total.

PROGRAMMING OF EXTENDA 2018

By 2018, Extenda has programmed numerous actions to reinforce the international promotion of the auxiliary industry of agriculture in Andalusia, among which stand out the support for participation in five international fairs (SIAM Meknes Fair, PLMA Non Food, Iran Non Food , Fruit Attraction and Expoagro Guanajuato); direct trade missions to Algeria, Peru and Ecuador, Colombia and Panama and the IFT Agro Fair, among others; and a reverse mission in the XII International Meeting of the Auxiliary Industry of Agriculture.

Likewise, Extenda develops a constant online promotion of the Andalusian companies of the sector throughout the year through the ‘Portal Industria Auxiliar de la Agricultura de Andalucía’, of Extenda Plus, in which they currently exhibit their offer more than half a hundred of Andalusian companies, with almost 300 products in catalog.