Soft wheat: 4th quarter imports below expectations
The National Federation of Cereals and Pulses Traders (Fédération nationale des négociants en céréales et légumineuses, FNCL) has just published its latest import statistics. They show that imports of bread-making soft wheat fell short of the target set by the National Interprofessional Office for Cereals and Pulses (Office national interprofessionnel des céréales et légumineuses, ONICL) for the last quarter of 2023.
Indeed, in its circular No. 666 dated September 26, 2023 concerning the flat-rate premium for imported soft wheat over the period from October 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023, ONICL had set the bar at a maximum quantity of 20 million quintals. In the end, operators were only able to import 10.72 million quintals of bread wheat over this quarter. That’s 2.56 million quintals in October, just over 5 million quintals in November and 3.15 million quintals in December. In other words, the quantities imported in October and December were below the monthly average of 4.5 million quintals required for crushing. As a result, even the tool stock, i.e. the import logic that ensures three months’ consumption, is currently under threat. Questioned concerning this point, Omar Yacoubi, president of the FNCL, reassures us that «the stock is currently sufficient «and that there is therefore nothing to worry about in this respect, at least until the end of March. In the meantime, «we need sufficient rain during January «, stresses Yacoubi. Otherwise, the agricultural year would be definitively compromised, especially for cereal crops, wheat in particular.
In this context, professionals are calling for the acceleration of reimbursements to improve their cash flow. To date, the Government is 8 to 9 months behind schedule, which corresponds to an amount of just over one billion Dirhams (USD 100 million), notes the FNCL.
Meanwhile, ONICL has just published a new circular on the flat-rate premium for imported soft wheat for the period ranging from January 1, 2024 to April 30, 2024, raising the maximum quantity to 25 million quintals. France will once again be Morocco’s main supplier of soft wheat. Indeed, since the outbreak of the Russian -Ukrainian war, France has been Morocco’s leading supplier of wheat. In the last three months of 2023, it supplied Morocco with over 3.6 million quintals of soft bread wheat, including over one million quintals last October. In the same quarter, France was followed by Germany, which sold over 1.9 million quintals. In third place, Germany was followed by Russia, which managed to sell over 1.8 million quintals. Imported wheat also came from Poland, Lithuania, Romania, Latvia, Canada, and the USA. This shows that the country has diversified its sources of supply.
Aziz DIOUF
