Morocco, one of North Africa's main state grains importers, is hoping for enough rainfall soon to save an already stunted crop from "looming disaster", the country's main farming group chief said on Thursday.
"We are already in a terrible situation as areas sowed in wheat and barley received 50 percent less rainfall this season than the previous one, with some areas badly hit by drought," Ahmed Ouayach, chairman of Morocco's Agriculture and Rural Development Confederation, said. "We will be very lucky if the harvest is average this year.
The best we can hope for is a less-than-average level if we get sufficient rainfall this month and during the first half of April," he told Reuters in an interview. His confederation, known by its French acronym Comader, groups farming and agrobusiness unions and groups ranging from cereals producers to millers, grains traders and livestock breeders as well as citrius exporters.