French diplomats and businessmen are sounding the alarm
In parallel with the coolness that has characterized Algerian-French relations since last May, a group of French newspapers reported difficulties that they said French exports to Algeria were suffering from, and linked this to the political and diplomatic crisis that bilateral relations have suffered since the change that occurred in the French position on the Western Sahara issue in the summer of 2024, which, as is known, caused the position of Algerian ambassador to Paris to become vacant until today.
The information obtained by the French media, namely “Marianne” magazine on its website, as well as “La Croix” newspaper, and the “Le Journal du Dimanche” website, is attributed to a number of French diplomats and businessmen active in the field of export, talking about the reluctance of Algerian importers to turn to French products.
The three platforms tried to investigate the sources of information to confirm what they reached, but they did not reach a source directly related to this file who agreed to reveal his identity, and even the head of the Algerian-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Michel Bezak, when asked about this issue, responded remarkably reservedly: “I prefer not to answer to avoid adding more fuel to the fire,” according to what was stated on the “Marianne” website on Wednesday, September 29.
Based on what “Marianne” magazine wrote, since the end of last July, undocumented information has circulated warning against the import of some French products, with the exception of pharmaceutical products, while French wheat was excluded from an offer to buy half a million tons, launched last month, in a new blow directed at the French grain sector, which has lost the Algerian market over the past few years.
The same source says that the “Renault Trucks” company, which previously supplied the civil protection services in Algeria with equipment (trucks), lost deals to sell spare parts for the after-sales stage, and this is based on a French source whose identity was not revealed, despite the fact that “Renault Trucks” is no longer French after its acquisition by the Swedish giant “Volvo,” according to “Marianne,” noting that the “Renault” car factory in Algeria has remained closed since 2020, and not There is something on the horizon that indicates the imminent resumption of its activity.
Until December 2025, imports from France were suffering from bottlenecks, says La Croix newspaper in its issue issued on Thursday, October 1st. However, since July 2026, they have become almost non-existent, and French exports, especially in the spare parts sector, have become unpopular in Algeria after importers turned to other producers who are not French.
Lacroix quoted a diplomat as saying: “It is forbidden to import everything that is French, including products produced by foreign capital that has acquired French companies,” which opened a wide way for Chinese companies in the Algerian market, according to the same source, who spoke of a sharp decline in the value of French exports to Algeria, to only 4 billion euros between July 2025 and July 2026 (compared to 4.8 billion euros in 2024). Considering this a reflection of the level reached by bilateral relations.
The newspaper “Le Journal du Dimanche”, in its Thursday issue, also touched on this issue that was sparked by “Marianne”, recalling the warnings that had been issued by the head of the “Association France Algeria”, Ségolène Royal, a candidate for the upcoming French presidential elections, who warned on more than one occasion that the failure of the French President, Emmanuel Macron, to rush to correct relations with Algeria, would cause Paris to lose its interests in Algeria.
The Montaigne Institute had recently published a study on Algerian-French relations, directed at candidates for the French presidential elections, through which it revealed the bankruptcy of 600 French companies exporting to Algeria, while more than six thousand other companies remain at risk of bankruptcy, because two-thirds of their exports are directed to Algeria, according to the same study.
