Guinea's ruling junta has suspended the export of several agricultural products, including rice, potatoes and palm oil, for six months to preserve its “food sovereignty” and “social peace”.
This decision is linked to the concern to preserve stocks before the next harvests, and “in no way” to the end, on Monday, of the agreement between Moscow and Kiev, which allowed Ukraine to export cereals, particularly to Africa, despite the war , from Guinea's Ministry of Commerce.
“We are entering a period (of scarcity). We need to replenish our reserves to guarantee food sovereignty and social peace,” a Commerce Ministry official told AFP on Tuesday.
The suspension of exports concerns around fifteen basic foodstuffs (rice, onion, potato, dried chilli, fresh chilli, eggplant, okra, fresh tomato, yam, cassava, corn, cassava and corn flour, yam, sweet potato and palm oil), said the ministry in a statement dated Monday and sent to AFP on Tuesday.
Exports of these products are “banned for a period of six months”, under penalty of fines or even criminal prosecution, he warned.
Guinea, one of the poorest countries in the world, despite its rich subsoil (iron, bauxite and gold in particular), normally exports these agricultural products to many West African countries.
On Monday, Moscow refused to extend the cereals agreement signed with Ukraine in July 2022 under the auspices of the United Nations and Turkey, and subsequently extended several times, denouncing obstacles to trade in Russian fertilizers and products.
This agreement allowed the export of Ukrainian cereals through the Black Sea, despite the Russian invasion, to the particular benefit of African countries.
Guinea has been governed since 2021 by a junta that took power in a coup. Under international pressure, the military agreed to hand over power to elected civilians by the end of 2024.
