Morocco raises soft wheat import subsidy to 46.77 DH
Morocco's grain office raises the soft wheat import subsidy to 46.77 DH per quintal in November, up from 44.48 DH in October and 20.80 DH in September, amid the Russia-Ukraine war's fallout.
Morocco's National Interprofessional Cereals and Pulses Office (ONICL) has raised the flat-rate subsidy on soft wheat imports to 46.77 dirhams per quintal for the current month of November, according to Hespress.
The decision falls under the periodic compensation system already in place, designed to cover the gap between the total cost of importing soft wheat from international markets and the reference purchase price set for Morocco's industrial mills.
How has the subsidy changed in recent months?
The subsidy stood at 44.48 dirhams per quintal in October, up from around 20.80 dirhams in September, according to the same ONICL figures reported by Hespress.
| Month | Subsidy per quintal |
|---|---|
| September 2026 | 20.80 DH |
| October 2026 | 44.48 DH |
| November 2026 | 46.77 DH |
Soft wheat on European markets is still trading around 305 dirhams per quintal, according to industry sources cited by Hespress, as Moroccan importers continue to buy mainly from European markets, especially France, to secure the volumes needed to cover national consumption, while the fallout from the Russia-Ukraine war keeps affecting supplies from the Black Sea region.
What does this jump in the subsidy mean?
The subsidy's steady climb, from 20.80 dirhams in September to 46.77 dirhams in November — more than double in just two months — reflects a widening gap between the real cost of importing soft wheat on international markets and the reference purchase price set for Morocco's industrial mills. The higher the import cost climbs, the wider that gap grows, and the heavier the bill the state treasury carries to cover it — a sign of mounting pressure on the import bill for a staple at the heart of Morocco's bread and flour supply.
The mechanism's purpose, as Hespress describes it citing the ONICL, is for the state to absorb the gap between the real import cost and the mills' reference price, so that rising world wheat prices don't feed straight through into the cost of locally milled flour. Each monthly rise in the flat-rate subsidy is therefore mainly a sign that this gap is widening on international markets, rather than a decision to raise the burden on the mills themselves.
Another subsidy targeting the grain sector this season
This adjustment to the import subsidy comes as part of a broader public effort for the grain sector: the state had already granted a 50% subsidy on grain seeds for the 2026-2027 farming season, as part of efforts to boost Morocco's domestic grain production. Between seed subsidies at the start of the farming season and import subsidies running all year, public authorities are trying to balance encouraging domestic production with securing soft wheat supplies from abroad whenever local output falls short of consumption.