Cash-strapped Morocco is no hurry to import soft wheat

The Moroccan government, facing its biggest wheat import campaign this year in three decades while hard currency reserves are dwindling, said it would not tap international soft wheat markets before the bulk of its domestic harvest is sold.

The North African country, which has received no bids in two tenders this week for European Union and U.S.-origin soft wheat, can keep stocks at a comfortable level of 1.75 million tons by end-August, enough to cover four months of milling needs, the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.

By the end of the first week of August, farmers had sold 1.39 million tons of the 2.74 million tons of soft wheat expected to be harvested this year, the ministry added on Thursday.