Morocco’s wheat imports are to set a record by a distance, turning the country into a high-ranking buyer, thanks to crop damage which has sparked a grains “crisis”, driving barley prices to twice those the other side of the Mediterranean.
The North African country will import 5.6m tonnes of wheat in 2012-13, thanks to setbacks to domestic crop hopes from drought and “unusual cold spells” which have slowed development of crops which did germinate, US Department of Agriculture officials in Rabat said.
Imports at that level would be 75% higher than those expected for this season, and trounce the current record, of 4.19m tonnes, set four years ago.
They would also promote Morocco up the ranks of wheat importers, to not far short of typical buy-ins from the likes of Algeria and Japan, and well above the likes of the Philippines and Turkey which the country usually ranks with.
‘Unprecedented prices’
The USDA staff also revealed further insight into Morocco’s decision on Monday to ditch import duties, of $35 a tonne, on feed barley, saying that the country’s reserve of the grain had shrunk to 40,000 tonnes by the end of last month.
“Barley prices in some local markets soared to unprecedented levels of 5,000 dirham (about $600) per tonne,” they said, adding that the average price was 4,500 dirham a tonne, more than 50% higher than at the end of February 2011.
In the cash market in France, a major grain exporter to Morocco, feed barley is priced at E200 ($264) a tonne, according to consultancy Agritel.
Moroccan barley sowings appear to have been particularly badly affected by the poor weather, with livestock feed requirements being boosted also by the damage to pasture from a lack of rain.
The country’s barley harvest is set to plunge by 62% to a 12-year low, prompting a doubling in imports to a record 1.0m tonnes, likely to rank Morocco as the third-ranked buyer of the grain in 2012-13, behind China and Japan, to judge by historical averages.
‘Lost hope’
Morocco has been affected by the same dry weather pattern which has hurt crops in much of western Europe too, particularly Spain, parts of which have recorded a record dry winter.
In Morocco, rainfall since September has come in at half the levels of the year before, prompting farmers to hold-off sowings, and meaning “planted seeds did not fully germinate”.
“In some areas, it is reported that some farmers have lost hope in the wheat crop this year and let their livestock animals feed on the fields,” the USDA bureau said.
The impact of the grains “crisis” has been exacerbated in the milling wheat segment by the poor quality of last year’s harvest, damaged by harvest rains, forcing some 10-15% of supplies bought for a government reserve to be downgraded to feed.
