French wheat exporters said on Tuesday they expected Moroccan imports of soft wheat to rise to 3.8 million tonnes in the 2019/2020 season, with France supplying 65% of that. Last season, Morocco imported 2.6 million tonnes of soft wheat, according to Morocco's grains and cereals agency (ONICL).
France topped the list of Morocco's soft wheat suppliers with 1.4 million tonnes, equivalent to about 54% of Morocco's imports, said Philippe Heusele, head of the French grains export promotion agency, at a meeting in Casablanca. "This year France started exporting to Morocco early with first ships already in Moroccan ports," he said.
French exporters expect to regain some of the Moroccan market share they lost to Black Sea producers, he added. Morocco has announced its own cereals harvest this year of 5.2 million tonnes, including 2.68 million of soft wheat, down 49% from a year earlier.
"The national harvest is meagre this year with only 1 million tonnes of domestic soft wheat being commercialised so far," said Jamal M'Hamdi head of Moroccan grains and cereals traders federation. The customs duty, set at 35% since Oct. 1, is expected to be unchanged into the new year as long as flour prices remain stable in the local market, he said.
Morocco cut the rate from 135% to help importers boost national reserves, which stood at 1.5 million tonnes by the end of September, covering 2.7 months of the needs of industrial millers.
A tender for 576,000 tonnes of European Union wheat was awarded earlier this month by ONICLE, while only 30,000 tonnes of imports of US wheat were approved under a preferential tariff agreement.
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