October 12, 2011

French wheat sales to Morocco likely to decline

Due to lower output, France will divide soft wheat sales to Morocco in the 2011/12 season, the French grain export body said Tuesday (Oct 11).

Jean-Pierre Langlois-Berthelot, chairman of France Export Cereales, said that French soft wheat exports to Morocco's north African neighbour Algeria would slightly decline during the 2011/12 campaign.

He said the volume is expected to decline because of lower output in France this year and will have an impact on their total exports to the Maghreb region.

He said Morocco had imported 2 million tonnes of French soft wheat during the 2010/11 season, a figure he expected to fall to around 1.2 million tonnes in the 2011/12 season.

He thinks exporting countries from the Black Sea region, mainly Russia, will fill the gap and become a player in the Maghreb.

Langlois-Berthelot said France had supplied Algeria with 4.2 million tonnes of soft wheat and 700,000 tonnes of durum wheat during the 2010/11 season.

He said that Algeria's output was slightly down this year and thinks Algeria will remain one of their main customers but their supplies will slightly go down. They will be close to the level of last year.

France is the biggest supplier of soft wheat to Morocco and Algeria, which are among the world's largest wheat importers.