Algerian president bans food exports amid worries of shortages due to Ukraine war

Algeria has banned exporting foods it imports, such as sugar, vegetable oil, pasta, semolina and wheat derivatives, the state news agency APS reported on Sunday.

All imported frozen meat products will also be banned, as authorities urged merchants to only sell locally produced meat.

The ban was as signed off by Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

During a Sunday cabinet meeting, Tebboune assigned the justice minister to prepare a bill criminalising the export of non-locally produced products, as he promised farmers who supply the state's strategic stock of wheat and grains with various incentives.

The step came as other countries took measures to safeguard their food reserves amid a rising food crisis resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine last month, which has aggravated a global surge in prices of key commodities, including food and oil.

Bread and other wheat-based products are staples of the diet in North African countries, which have been hard hit by the fallout of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Russia and Ukraine provide many countries with most of their wheat and vegetable oil supplies.