China overtakes Algeria as main wheat importer through Rouen

China has overtaken Algeria as the leading destination for wheat shipments through the port of Rouen, the main French export hub, for the first half of the marketing year, data from port operator Haropa showed Thursday.

During the week ending December 22, wheat exports moved up by 90% compared to the previous week to hit 270,293 mt, with the lion’s share of the volume leaving to China (206,572 mt).

That pushed China into the leading position of French wheat importers through Rouen, as the total volume of wheat leaving to that destination since July 1 reached 805,703 mt,

Meanwhile, Algeria - traditionally the main importer of French wheat - stands just a little behind that at 799,590 mt.

Apart from China as a destination, 31,863 mt of wheat also left to Morocco within the period, 16,500 mt to Spain and 7,749 mt to Portugal.

Barley exports were absent during the period, with total barley shipments between July 1 and December 22 standing at 1.49 million mt, including 1.22 million mt loaded for China.

In addition to that, data from La Pallice showed 41,000 mt of wheat nominated to Senegal and 3,900 mt of barley heading to Norway.

EC data

Meanwhile, French wheat exports between July 1 to December 6 stayed at 2.9 million mt, according to delayed data from the European Commission.

That compares with 3.1 million mt that departed over the same period of 2020.

For France, barley exports remained at 1.9 million mt, according to the EC data, compared to 1.4 million mt for the same period last year.