Morocco Sets Soft-Wheat Reference Price at 2,900 Dirhams a Ton

By Rudy Ruitenberg - May 18, 2011 1:20 PM GMT

Morocco, North Africa’s third-largest wheat importer, set the reference price for buying locally grown soft wheat at 290 dirhams ($36.56) per 100 kilograms (220 pounds).

The reference price is valid from June 1 to Oct. 15 for standard quality wheat harvested in 2011 for delivery at the flour mill, the government said in a document dated May 16 and published on the website of national grains office ONICL.

Morocco typically sets an import tax for soft wheat as of June 1 to help local farmers sell their crop to the country’s millers, before lifting or lowering the duties later in the season as local stocks run out. The country on average produced 58 percent of the wheat it consumed in the past 10 years, based on data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The government seeks to “safeguard the revenue of the farmers,” the document said.

Wheat on the Chicago Board of Trade for delivery in July trades at the equivalent of $284.58 a metric ton, while November-delivery milling wheat on NYSE Liffe in Paris is at the equivalent of $336.52 a ton.

Millers will receive a subsidy of 30 dirhams per 100 kilograms from June 1 to Oct. 15 for locally bought soft wheat, the grains office said.

Starting Oct. 16 and until May 31, the price wheat-storage companies can charge millers will drop to 260 dirhams per 100 kilograms for wheat produced in Morocco, ONICL said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rudy Ruitenberg in Paris at rruitenberg@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter atccarpenter2@bloomberg.net.