Black Sea Grain – Ukrania
Morocco imported 21.3mn quintals (equivalent of 2.13mn tons) of grain since the beginning of the 2012/13 grain import season starting in June 2012 till end-October, registering a 125% y/y jump, the state-run grains authority ONICL said on its website. Corn topped the list with imports amounting to 9.7mn quintals, up by 32.8% y/y and accounting for 45.5% of total grain imports. Soft wheat followed with imports of 7.8mn quintals, ahead of durum wheat with 2.9mn quintals, and barley with 0.8mn quintals, down by 42.8% y/y at end-October.
Imports of soft wheat, the main staple food in Morocco, were mostly driven by the suspension of customs duties as of October 2012. Besides, domestic collection of soft wheat reached 17.1mn quintals in the first five months of the 2012/2013 campaign, while 14.4mn quintals were carried over from the previous month. Morocco, North Africa’s third-biggest wheat importer after Algeria and Egypt, said imports from Brazil were the highest accounting for 29% of total imports in June-October 2012, followed by imports from Ukraine (21%), Argentina (17%), France (13.8%) and Canada (13.7%). ONICL also reported that the volume of grain held by traders at Moroccan grain terminals increased by 11% y/y to 24.4mn quintals by the end of October compared to the same period last year. Earlier, Morocco’s government decided to reduce the 100% subsidy it used to pay millers for imported soft wheat to 85% of any excess between its reference of MAD 2,600 (USD 300) price for soft wheat and the price of soft wheat imported between October 1, 2012 and end-December. Morocco reported a 27.4% y/y drop in production of soft wheat to 27.4mn quintals in the 2012/13 season due to dry weather.
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