In April, the government forecast a 2010 grain harvest of eight million tonnes, down from a 10.2 million record in 2009. Some 3.8 million tonnes is likely to be soft wheat, compared to around 4.6 million tonnes a year earlier. Government officials expect around two million tonnes of Morocco's soft wheat to be commercialised-the rest is used for subsistence-against a national requirement of just over four million tonnes, and the difference must be imported.

 

"If the amount collected (and marketed through official channels) is 20 million quintals (two million tonnes) the complementary needs will be around 22-23-24 million further quintals that will need to be found, and they'll need to be imported," Bouchaib el-Haddaj, Director of Morocco's national grain traders' federation FNCL said in an interview.

 

"Whether we will arrive at these 20 million quintals (two million tonnes) we cannot know, and everything will depend on the quantity collected in order to know the date on which imports will be authorised," he added. He confirmed that the quality of Morocco's grain crop appeared to be lower than in 2009 due to rain, but he played down the effect of this on the likely level of imports.