Morocco’s wheat imports forecast at 5 mln tons next season – trader group

Morocco needs to import at least 5 million metric tons of soft wheat next season starting on July 1, amid prospects of a meagre harvest due to drought, the head of Morocco’s grains and cereal traders federation FNCL said.

The central bank expects the country’s cereal harvest of soft wheat, durum and barley to drop to 2.5 million tons this season, from 5.5 million tons last season.

Late and insufficient rainfall led to a drop in the area planted with rain-fed cereals to 2.3 million hectares this season from 3.65 million hectares in 2023, which was also a dry year, according to agriculture ministry figures.

“The expected meagre domestic harvest means that the larger part will be kept in villages,” FNCL’s Omar Yacoubi told Reuters.

The Moroccan grains agency (ONICL) had offered subsidies to importers, aiming for 2.5 million tons of cereals up to April 30.

“In recent months, we did not need the subsidy because prices in the international market were below the price targeted by ONICL,” Yacoubi said.

Morocco budgeted $1.63 billion to control the prices of bread, sugar and cooking gas in 2024, down from $2.5 billion last year.

The country’s soft wheat stockpiles now covered a little more than three months, El Yakoubi said.

From June 2023 to March 2024, Morocco imported 4.131 million tons of soft wheat, according to FNCL figures.

France topped Morocco’s suppliers with 2.28 million tons, followed by Germany with 656,000 tons, Russia 301,000 tons, Romania 297,000 tons and Lithuania 202,000 tons.

Yacoubi noted, however, the hurdles facing importers in paying Russian suppliers due to sanctions and the logistics constraints affecting Ukrainian exports.

“Given the scale of our import needs, we have to leave all import doors open,” he said.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Ahmed Eljechtimi; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)