Morocco to harvest record cereal crop

Morocco is on course to harvest a record cereal crop of more than 10 million tonnes this year after favourable rainfall so far during the growing season, a farm ministry official said on Monday. "We think there could be record production. We could have more than 100 million quintals (10 million tonnes) if everything goes well," Ahmed El Bouari, director of irrigation at the Moroccan agriculture ministry, told Reuters at the Paris farm show.
The North African country had benefited from regular rain since before the sowing campaign in October, he said. The expected record harvest would reduce Morocco's dependence on grain imports in the coming year, he added. The current record for cereal output in Morocco was in 2013 when just under 10 million tonnes were harvested. The local harvest usually begins in May.