France to supply two thirds of Morocco’s soft wheat needs, industry group says

French wheat exporters will supply Morocco with two thirds of its soft wheat needs, or 3.5 million metric tons, in the 2025-2026 season, Philippe Heusele, international head at French grain industry group Intercereales, said on Tuesday. (AP/File)

• Morocco is expected to import 5.5 million tons of soft wheat
• Morocco has reported below-average harvests in recent years because of drought

CASABLANCA: French wheat exporters will supply Morocco with two thirds of its soft wheat needs, or 3.5 million metric tons, in the 2025-2026 season, Philippe Heusele, international head at French grain industry group Intercereales, said on Tuesday.
Morocco is expected to import 5.5 million tons of soft wheat, its main staple, this market year from June to the end of May 2026, according to estimates by Moroccan traders and French grains association Synacomex.
Morocco has reported below-average harvests in recent years because of drought. This season it reported a soft wheat harvest of 2.4 million tons.
Despite the weak domestic harvest, stockpiles remain at a “comfortable level,” covering more than three months of industrial millers’ needs, said Abdelkader Alaoui, president of the FNM industrial milling federation.
Moroccan traders attending an Intercereales conference in Casablanca see the French harvest as best positioned, given its availability and proximity to Moroccan ports compared with other origins such as the Black Sea region and Argentina.
“We are also looking at Russian, German and Polish wheat as well as Argentina, where prices are interesting,” said Omar Yacoubi, head of FNCL, Morocco’s grain traders federation.
From June to September, Morocco imported 1.5 million tons of soft wheat, including 996,368 tons from France, followed by the United States (94,688 tons), Russia (85,499 tons) and Lithuania (63,000 tons), FNCL data shows.