Senegal wheat imports near one million tonnes as supplier race intensifies

Senegal · TRADE

Senegal wheat imports are climbing steadily toward the one-million-tonne mark, with the country bringing in 904,947 tonnes of soft wheat in 2024 alone. The rising volumes are drawing fresh competition among Russia, France and the United States for influence over a market that feeds directly into urban stability and household budgets.

Senegal wheat imports continue their climb toward one million tonnes (Photo: Internet Reproduction)

The numbers behind the climb

Data from Senegal’s National Agency of Statistics and Demography, cited by Ecofin Agency, shows soft wheat imports reached 904,947 tonnes in 2024. That represents a 30.3 percent increase from 693,996 tonnes in 2020, a pace that puts the symbolic one-million-tonne threshold within reach.

The import bill has risen even faster than the volume. It climbed 55.24 percent over the same five-year period to CFA 171.37 billion, roughly US$303.5 million, reflecting both higher quantities and elevated global prices.

A separate market study using Food and Agriculture Organization data recorded 897,798 tonnes imported in 2023, worth US$308.459 million or about 186.91 billion CFA francs. Senegal’s National Federation of Bakers estimated 2024 imports at 840,000 tonnes, a slightly lower figure that still confirms the upward trend.

Why Senegal cannot grow its way out

Senegal imports 100 percent of its wheat grain because domestic production is negligible. The International Monetary Fund notes that all wheat is imported, and a World Bank trade profile confirms local production cannot substitute quickly when import prices spike.

Urbanisation and rising bread consumption are the structural engines of demand. The United States Department of Agriculture points to a small number of large flour mills, including Les Grands Moulins de Dakar, Sentenac and NMA, as the gatekeepers of the import chain.

The government is trying to loosen this dependence. A 2025 report says Senegal is developing a national wheat strategy aimed at cutting imports by at least 40 percent by 2028, and wheat cultivation trials have begun in the Dakar region to test local production under colder-season conditions.

The supplier map is shifting

Before the war in Ukraine, Russia and Ukraine supplied 64 percent of Senegal’s imported wheat, according to IMF data. The disruption of Black Sea shipping routes after February 2022 forced Senegalese importers to look elsewhere, turning to Poland, Lithuania and Argentina and paying higher prices.

Senegal later resumed most imports from Russia, but the episode exposed the fragility of relying on a narrow set of suppliers. A 2023 explainer noted that the war’s logistics frictions pushed up costs across the entire bread supply chain before the traditional routes reopened.

France remains historically important in Senegal’s wheat chain, with a World Bank paper noting that Senegal imported most of its wheat from France in the period studied, alongside about 10 percent from Canada. That legacy position is now being challenged from multiple directions.

America returns to the market

The United States made a notable commercial re-entry in 2025. Senegal bought 34,500 metric tonnes of American hard red winter wheat in August of that year, marking the first United States wheat sale to the country since the 2017/2018 season.

A 2025 trade report described the shipment as Senegal’s first American wheat in over a decade. The move signals Washington’s intent to regain a foothold in a market where it has been largely absent while Russian and French suppliers dominated.

The broader Africa-wide picture reinforces why this matters. An AKADEMIYA2063 brief notes that 41 of 54 African countries rely on wheat imports, and 12 are strongly exposed to the Russia-Ukraine-Black Sea supply complex. Senegal is among the countries with the highest dependence.

Bread, politics and the price of stability

Wheat is politically sensitive in Senegal because bread prices are socially explosive. The National Federation of Bakers tracks import volumes closely, and any sustained price rise feeds directly into urban household budgets and purchasing power.

The vulnerability extends well beyond wheat. The World Food Programme says Senegal imports 70 percent of its food, making households acutely exposed to external price shocks. IMF analysis echoes this, noting that imported food makes up a large share of consumption and caloric intake.

Multilateral lenders are trying to reduce the structural risk. The World Bank approved US$200 million for Senegal in January 2024 under the third phase of the Food Systems Resilience Program, bringing total programme financing to US$895 million across West Africa.

Great-power competition in a grain sack

The wheat trade in Senegal has become a miniature of great-power competition. Russia supplies grain and influence, with French Senate material explicitly stating that agricultural exports are increasingly used as a tool of influence, especially by Moscow.

France retains its legacy market share and deep commercial ties, while the United States is trying to win back commercial ground through direct sales and broader food-security programmes. The World Bank and the United States Agency for International Development are simultaneously working to reduce the structural vulnerability that makes external suppliers so powerful.

The one-million-tonne threshold is now a question of when, not if. What happens after that will depend on whether Senegal’s domestic wheat strategy gains traction, and on which external supplier proves most reliable on price, logistics and political terms. For a deeper look at how resource competition is reshaping the continent, see Africa: The New Scramble.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

• eucord.org
• fao.org
• senat.fr
• theworld.org

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