Morocco's Olive Oil Exports Reach Record Levels as Domestic Prices Rise

Summary

Morocco’s olive oil exports in 2022 saw an 85 per­cent growth in vol­ume and a 49 per­cent growth in value com­pared to 2021, exceed­ing MAD 73.8 mil­lion in agri­cul­tural and agri-food exports by November 2022. Due to decreased pro­duc­tion and ris­ing prices, con­cerns about olive oil fraud and afford­abil­ity have prompted increased scrutiny and gov­ern­ment inter­ven­tion in Morocco.

The fig­ures for Morocco’s 2022 olive oil exports show an 85 per­cent growth in vol­ume and a 49 per­cent growth in value com­pared to 2021.

Data released by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development show that such growth fares well above the aver­age for Moroccan food exports. In 2022, agri­cul­tural and mar­itime food ship­ments grew 20 per­cent from the pre­vi­ous year.

According to the Ministry, Morocco’s over­all agri­cul­tural and agri-food exports exceeded MAD 73.8 mil­lion (€6,6 mil­lion) in November 2022. Much of that increased value is due to higher exports to the North American mar­kets.

As reported by H24info, data from December 2022 shows that the coun­try sur­passed the MAD 80 mil­lion thresh­old in food export value for the first time. In 2021, it reported a total of MAD 62.36 mil­lion.

International Olive Council fig­ures show that in the 2021/2022 sea­son, Morocco exported 28 thou­sand tons of olive oil, more than dou­bling the pre­vi­ous two years’ num­bers.

Olive oil export esti­mates for 2023 remain uncer­tain due to the sig­nif­i­cantly reduced pro­duc­tion reported by some of the prin­ci­pal pro­duc­ing coun­ties. This drop has trig­gered price increases and volatil­ity in the import/export mar­kets.

While offi­cial har­vest fig­ures are still lack­ing, local observers have con­firmed a sig­nif­i­cant olive oil yield decrease in Morocco. The main rea­sons are rain­fall scarcity, heat­waves and drought. These cli­mate fac­tors affected the many rain­fed olive orchards in Morocco, just as they have hurt the har­vest in other coun­tries of the west­ern Mediterranean Basin.

Because of the fall in pro­duc­tion, olive oil prices for Moroccan con­sumers have also grown sig­nif­i­cantly.

As reported by Bladi.net, the National Food Safety Office (NFSO) has announced a round of strict checks on olive oil traded in the coun­try.

Recently, Rachid Benali, pres­i­dent of Morocco’s Interprofessional Olive Oil Association (Interprolive), warned con­sumers that an increase in olive oil fraud is likely.

About 85 per­cent of all olive oil con­sumed in the coun­try is mar­keted in bulk, mak­ing it more dif­fi­cult for law enforce­ment offi­cials to counter poten­tial fraud.

That is why NFSO has appealed to Moroccan cit­i­zens to pur­chase only prod­ucts cor­rectly labeled, duly pack­aged and rec­om­mended by the agency.

In the last few days, the mat­ter has reached the Moroccan Parliament. As reported by LeSiteInfo, rep­re­sen­ta­tive Rachid Hamouni from the Party of Progress and Socialism warned his col­leagues that the MAD 80 (€7,25) thresh­old for a one-liter bot­tle of olive oil has already been reached in sev­eral areas.

Hamouni warned against trade spec­u­la­tions, which, in his view, are also caus­ing rises in olive oil prices.

During a ses­sion of the House of Representatives, the Government was offi­cially asked about the mea­sures they will take to keep olive oil prices afford­able for all fam­i­lies since olive oil plays a cru­cial role in the local culi­nary tra­di­tion.

• H24 Info
• Le Site
• bladi.net