Morocco Will Not Ease Cereal Import Duties in 2011

Morocco will not ease import duties on cereals before the end of this year at the earliest, even after about six percent of the harvest was lost to bad weather, the agriculture minister told parliament on June 15, 2011.

"We will not ease custom (duties) on cereal imports before the end of 2011 at the earliest," Aziz Akhennouch said in response to questions on whether recent bad weather would mean a change in cereal supply policies.

Akhennouch said 500,000 tonnes from this year's cereals harvest was lost to bad weather, mainly after heavy rain in May and June.

"This represents about 6 percent of our initial harvest forecast," he said. In April, Akhennouch said Morocco's cereals harvest was expected to stand at 8.8 million tonnes, barring exceptional developments.

The central bank on Tuesday put the cereals harvest forecast at 7.8 million tonnes. Morocco's 2010 cereals harvest was 7.46 million tonnes.