Reuters
by Ahmed Eljechtimi
Morocco’s cereals harvest rose to 10.3 million tonnes this year, up 7.3 percent from last year, said agriculture and fisheries minister Aziz Akhannouch on Tuesday.
The figure is higher than the forecast for 9.82 million tonnes made by the agriculture ministry in April.
“This is an exceptional harvest,” Akhannouch told reporters, adding that output per hectare was a record 23 quintals.
The harvest includes 5 million tonnes of soft wheat, 2.4 million tonnes of hard wheat and 2.9 million tonnes of barley, he said.
“A good crop year was achieved despite late rainfall which prompted farmers to leave 1 million hectares unplanted,” he said.
More than 4.5 million hectares were sowed with soft wheat, hard wheat and barley in 2018 compared with 5.4 million hectares a year earlier, the agriculture ministry said in April.
In light of the strong harvest, the government has increased the customs duty on soft wheat to 135 percent from 30 percent to reduce imports and help local farmers increase the domestic harvest. The measure will last until Oct. 31.
The decision was also coupled with incentives for local millers to opt for domestic wheat instead of imports.
Agriculture accounts for about 15 percent of Morocco’s economy and employs nearly 35 percent of the workforce.
The harvest was among the factors that pushed the government to review its 2018 growth forecast to 3.6 percent from an earlier prediction of 3.2 percent. The planning agency expects the economy to grow by 3.1 percent this year.
Wheat supply is key to Morocco’s stability as bread and semolina make up the staples for the population of 35 million. (Reporting by Ahmed Eljechtimi Editing by Ulf Laessing and Louise Heavens)
