Morocco to stock wheat against market swings

Morocco will maintain a roughly three-month reserve of soft wheat in its stockpiles between now and May to guard against uncertainty on the world grain market, the head of the state grain agency said Thursday (Sep 30).

Aziz Abdelali, managing director of Morocco's ONICL, said the country would import soft wheat as needed to keep the stockpile topped up, although he did not give a figure.

"We will keep importing soft wheat to maintain the high level of stocks while meeting market needs," he said.

Local traders say Morocco, the world's tenth-biggest grain importer, would need to build a stockpile of at least 1.2 million tonnes of soft wheat for it to supply the country for 2.5 to three months.

World grain prices have soared since major exporter Russia, its harvest badly affected by drought, imposed a moratorium on grain exports.