HGCA has visited Moroccan millers and wheat buyers to give them an update on the coming season as well as to check out future opportunities.

BCE, HGCA’S export arm, which aims to stimulate the demand for wheat grown in the UK, visited Casablanca between 17 and 18 October to update millers and buyers on the UK market, where they also presented in French, as part of their Outward Missions programme.

The group, made up of farmers and traders, and supported by the British Embassy also visited Moroccan biscuit manufacturer Bimo - to present on the latest data on uks wheat. The delegation then went to Casablanca mill - Moulins du Maghreb to talk with millers about specifications and varieties, and also visited First Foods in Morocco milling around 2,000 tonnes per day, and which imports 1Mt of wheat a year.

George Forbes, BCE Chairman, said: “We have been coming to Casablanca for five years, it is a very important market for our uks wheat variety, as biscuit and cake consumption is increasing here, and there is a demand for it. Of the total wheat imported typically 60 to 70% is used for standard/blending flour, and 7 to 8% for biscuit flour, which is huge, considering that uks can be used for blending.

“By coming here as an independent body we make sure everyone is up to date with the crop situation in the UK. In a year such as 2012 where we are struggling with quality it is important to be honest and maintain relations with millers so they know we are still a potential source of wheat for next year.”

For the first time plant breeder Julie Seekings joined the mission to talk to millers about soft milling wheat and the methods used by the industry and breeders to help predict biscuit quality. She flagged up the importance of needing to understand the requirements of the miller. Nick Burchell, from the BCE Committee spoke to delegates about the 2014 crop, although too early to predict, he told Moroccan milers that more “very promising” varieties are in the pipeline. He also talked about the specifications for milling wheat and feed wheat.

Dozens of delegates were also told about the success of last year’s BCE’s Bread Baking Workshop, where Moroccan millers come to the UK each February and use uks to bake their national bread. The BCE mini-site was also shown to delegates, who can use the French tailored website to access market updates and information on exporters in the UK.

Delegate Rachid Chamcham, Director of Production at Moulins Du Maghreb, said: “In Morocco there is a market place for the biscuit industry, and it is quickly gathering speed, but our weakness is that we don’t have a wheat that is soft and we sometimes have to add protein to adapt it. Uks wheats are more apt to meet the needs of the biscuit makers, which is why we should work closely together, and why we need events like this.”

Morocco has 80 large industrial mills most of which are concentrated in urban areas such as Casablanca, Rabat and Fes. In recent years, the UK has made significant progress capturing a share of the Moroccan biscuit and bread market. In 2010/11 48,500 tonnes of UK wheat was exported to Morocco and 25,000 tonnes in 2011/12.

BCE have also visited millers in Madrid, Spain and Porto, Portugal earlier this month, and will go to Algeria on 26 to 27 November.

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