May 2, 2012

US increases efforts to regain Morocco grain exports

Due to "intensified supply pressures" caused by drought, Morocco's import needs are expected to soar this year that is why US grains exporters are stepping up efforts to win back share of the Moroccan market.

The US Grains Council has "turned its attention to initiatives to recapture the US share of the Morocco market" for coarse grain imports, after the North African country missed out on rains which have improved crop conditions in countries further north, in western Europe.

"Dry conditions have continued throughout most of April," Cary Sifferath, regional director for the council, which promotes US grain exports.

USDA staff has forecast Morocco's imports of barley alone among coarse grains doubling to a record one million tonnes in 2012-13 because of losses to dry weather, which is expected to force a 75% rise to an all-time high of 5.6 million tonnes in wheat purchases.

The US as late as 2005-06 claimed roughly a two-thirds share of Moroccan coarse grain import market, with the USGC claiming to have been "instrumental in nurturing the rise of [the country's] coarse grains consumption over the past 20 years".

However, the US shares has dwindled to a fraction of historic levels, as the EU, Russia, South America and Ukraine have taken market share.

"While Morocco is a market in which the US has recently faced growing competition, the extended drought is creating intensified supply pressures and thus opportunities for US exports," Sifferath said.

The USGC will be working with grain procurement authorities to help them source their additional feed needs from the US.