Generous and timely rainfalls have ensured a good start of the cereal-planting campaign in Morocco, promising a harvest at least equal to last year's, a senior Agriculture Ministry official said on Thursday. "The least we can say is that this year's campaign so far is as good as the previous one," he told Reuters.

If all goes well until the campaign ends in May, Morocco can post its third straight bumper harvest which will keep cereal needs at 1.5-1.8 million tonnes for the 2005-2006 import year.

"Technically speaking, this year is better. An adequate mix at the start of the campaign of rain, sunny weather then rain allowed farmers to prepare the land in the best conditions of moisture," the official added. Cereal-planted areas, up to December 24, covered 5.0 million hectares, the same level as last year, although seed sales rose by over 20 percent.

Morocco based its 2005 budget on a cereal harvest of 6.0 million tonnes, considered as average. Last year's harvest reached in excess of 8.0 million tonnes, 45 percent of which was staple soft wheat.

Copyright Reuters, 2005