Morocco To Import 2.5 Million Tonnes of Soft Wheat from France

Rabat – Morocco is expected to import 2.5 million tonnes, or 50% of its soft wheat needs, from France this season, Yann Lebeau, the Maghreb region head at French wheat professionals group Intercereales, told Reuters.

France has already exported 1 million tonnes to Morocco this summer in the wake of the severe drought that hit the country in 2022, Lebeau added in a statement to Reuters.

Morocco remains the largest destination for EU wheat for the 2022/23 agricultural campaign, according to a report from the European Commission published on Tuesday.

Morocco is one of the biggest clients of European wheat. A report from the European Commission showed that over the first four months of 2023, Morocco purchased 4 million tonnes of European wheat, up from 1.4 million tonnes a year earlier.

At the end of April 2023, the EU exported close to 16% of its wheat harvest to Morocco, a 6.1% year-on-year increase.

The sharp increase in Morocco’s wheat imports comes as a result of the country experiencing a sharp decline in wheat supplies from Eastern Europe and suffering from a severe drought in 2022, which devastated Morocco’s agricultural output.

The 2022 drought was the worst to hit the country in over thirty years and resulted in a 70% loss of annual crop production. Given that grains, particularly wheat, are a staple in the Moroccan diet, the drought has only served to deepen the country’s reliance on wheat imports.

In the first eight months of 2022, wheat imports skyrocketed to MAD 18.8 billion ($1.7 billion), almost double the amount of MAD 9.2 billion ($842 million) recorded during the same period in 2021.

The sharp increase in imports highlights the devastating impact of the drought on the country’s agriculture sector and underscores the urgent need for Morocco to diversify its food supply sources.