The agricultural sector continues to count the damage caused by the drought that has been raging for six years now. The impact is such that Morocco has been forced to review all its calculations, particularly in terms of food security. With cereal harvests decreasing year after year, increasing imports is the only option, the daily reports. Eco Inspirations in its edition of Tuesday, September 3.
The daily newspaper cites a recent FAO report as proof. The UN agency responsible for issues related to agriculture and food had predicted an increase in wheat imports in 2024 of 19%, or 7.5 million tonnes. Estimates corroborated by data from the National Federation of Cereal and Pulse Traders (FNCL).
“The latest figures for imports for the third quarter of the year indicate that the rate of change in imports shows a double-digit evolution for almost all products, with a few exceptions. Thus, for durum wheat, the quantity imported between June and August is of the order of 175,771 tonnes, an increase of 52% compared to the previous campaign. The same observation applies to soft wheat, the evolution of which was estimated at 37% (1,475,181 tonnes)», lit-on.
The most significant increase was observed in feed wheat imports. These increased by 89%. Barley also saw an upward movement in imports (14%). Only barley saw its imports decline.
“Overall, cereal imports increased by 24% for a total quantity of 2,758,795 tonnes. For legumes, the most imported products were rapeseed cakes, beet pulp, sunflower cakes, soybean cakes and soybean hulls, with respective increases of 167%, 156%, 96%, 52% and 15%.”lit-on encore.
On the other hand, imports of corn gluten and soybeans have drastically decreased (-73% and -61%). But overall, imports of derived products have increased by 39% for a quantity of 714,149 tonnes.
