Morocco to suspend soft wheat imports from June to July, millers say

RABAT: Morocco will suspend imports of soft wheat between June 1 and July 31, Abdelkader Alaoui, the head of the country’s millers federation, told Reuters on Wednesday.
The move had been widely anticipated given that Morocco expects its cereals harvest, including soft wheat, to double to 9 million metric tons this ‌season, after abundant ‌rainfall brought an end to ‌a ⁠seven-year drought.
The ⁠prolonged period of drought led Morocco to increase wheat imports under a subsidy program.
But in past years the North African country has halted imports for part of the year to prioritize ⁠its local harvest.
Morocco’s drought-driven ‌import needs ‌have turned it into the biggest overseas buyer of ‌European Union wheat.
French soft wheat exports ‌to Morocco reached 2.7 million tons in July-March, nearly double an average 1.5 million for the same period in the previous five ‌years, farm office FranceAgriMer said on Wednesday.
The US Department of ⁠Agriculture ⁠forecast that Moroccan wheat imports, including durum, will fall to 4 million tons in the upcoming 2026/27 season, 40 percent below their expected level this season.
Moroccan importers are currently facing delays in unloading cargoes amid congestion.
Around 300,000 tons of soft wheat are waiting to be unloaded at the port of Casablanca, Alaoui said.