RABAT (Reuters) – Morocco’s cereals harvest should reach 4.8 million tonnes this year, the agriculture minister said on Tuesday, which is far below last year’s level and the crop budget for 2012, but slightly above the most recent forecasts.
Aziz Akhannouch made the announcement in remarks carried by the official MAP news agency. He did not give a breakdown per variety.
Morocco produced 8.4 million tonnes of cereals in 2011, including 4.17 million tonnes of soft wheat, 1.85 million tonnes of durum wheat and 2.34 million tonnes of barley.
Last month, the head of the state-run agricultural research predicted a harvest below half last year’s level while the head of the central bank said the cereals harvest should stand at around 3.8 million tonnes in 2012.
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