Morocco Expands Protection for Regional Olive Oils

Summary

Morocco’s Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries is launch­ing the ​“Richness of the Terroir” ini­tia­tive to enhance the qual­ity of local food prod­ucts, par­tic­u­larly focus­ing on olive oil. By expand­ing geo­graph­i­cal indi­ca­tions and AOP des­ig­na­tions, the ini­tia­tive aims to improve stan­dard pro­ce­dures in groves and mills, pro­tect tra­di­tional pro­duc­tion, raise trade value, and sup­port rural incomes, with sev­eral olive oil IGs and AOPs expected to be added to the list.

A new ini­tia­tive launched by Morocco’s Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries aims to strengthen the qual­ity pro­file of sev­eral typ­i­cal local food prod­ucts, with olive oil qual­ity a pri­mary focus.

By expand­ing the num­ber of geo­graph­i­cal indi­ca­tions (IGs) and AOP (Appellation d’Origine) des­ig­na­tions — and sup­port­ing renewals of exist­ing labels — the ​“Richness of the Terroir” ini­tia­tive aims to strengthen stan­dard pro­ce­dures in groves and at the mill.

The Ministry lists 80 geo­graph­i­cal denom­i­na­tions rec­og­nized between 2009 and 2023, includ­ing 68 IGs and six AOPs. Officials say the new push should add four olive oil IGs and at least one AOP to those totals.

These des­ig­na­tions func­tion in a way broadly com­pa­ra­ble to the European Union’s PGI and PDO sys­tems, link­ing a product’s char­ac­ter­is­tics to a defined ori­gin and spec­i­fied pro­duc­tion meth­ods.

The ini­tia­tive also seeks to improve rural incomes by help­ing pro­duc­ers dif­fer­en­ti­ate cer­ti­fied oils from bulk com­modi­ties sold with­out a rec­og­nized place of ori­gin. The Ministry said the strat­egy pro­tects tra­di­tional pro­duc­tion while rais­ing trade and export value.

Major olive oil areas — par­tic­u­larly in the Fès-Meknès region — are seek­ing pro­tected sta­tus for local pro­duc­tion, includ­ing ter­ri­to­ries such as Zerhoune, Lemta Fès and Sefrou.

Certification requires pro­duc­ers to fol­low a tech­ni­cal spec­i­fi­ca­tion that defines the pro­duc­tion area, cul­ti­va­tion prac­tices, pro­cess­ing stan­dards, and trace­abil­ity rules.

Under Morocco’s Law 25 – 06 on geo­graph­i­cal indi­ca­tions — aligned with inter­na­tional intel­lec­tual prop­erty frame­works admin­is­tered through WIPO — the Ministry has allo­cated approx­i­mately 290,000 dirham (about €27,000) to sup­port new cer­ti­fi­ca­tions and renewals, both as IGs and AOPs. One exam­ple is Huile d’olive Tyout-Chiadma, an AOP that rec­og­nizes a par­tic­u­larly strong link between the oil and its pro­duc­tion area.

Several olive oil geo­graph­i­cal indi­ca­tions are already reg­is­tered in Morocco’s national reg­is­ter of pro­tected names, main­tained by the Moroccan Office of Industrial and Commercial Property (OMPIC). These include oils such as Essaouira Mogador, Guerrouane, Tadiynit-Nador and Oasis Skoura.

Such des­ig­na­tions iden­tify olive oils pro­duced in defined ter­ri­to­ries with deep his­tor­i­cal roots in olive cul­ti­va­tion. The geo­graph­i­cal indi­ca­tion ​“Huile d’olive Essaouira Mogador,” for exam­ple, cov­ers dozens of munic­i­pal­i­ties in Essaouira province and requires olives to be grown and processed within the des­ig­nated zone.

The lat­est cer­ti­fi­ca­tion push builds on the Plan Maroc Vert (Green Morocco Plan) and its suc­ces­sor, Generation Green 2020 – 2030, which aim to upgrade agri­cul­tural value chains, with olive oil pro­duc­tion among the pri­or­ity sec­tors.

Moroccan pro­duc­ers have also appeared more fre­quently among win­ners at the NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition (NYIOOC), a trend that many in the sec­tor view as evi­dence of a grad­ual shift toward higher-qual­ity pro­duc­tion and inter­na­tional recog­ni­tion.

One exam­ple is Noor Fès, a ver­ti­cally inte­grated pro­ducer oper­at­ing about 70,000 olive trees on 320 hectares near the Rif Mountains. The com­pany has received repeated recog­ni­tion at the NYIOOC for its Moroccan Picholine oil. Founder Mohammed Dakir Berrada and gen­eral man­ager Ghizlane Tazi have said the awards show Moroccan olive oils can com­pete inter­na­tion­ally while remain­ing rooted in local cul­ti­vars and tra­di­tions.

“This excel­lence is the result of our metic­u­lously selected fruit vari­ety… truly rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the qual­ity and char­ac­ter of our ter­roir,” they told Olive Oil Times after win­ning another Gold Award in New York.

Earlier NYIOOC results also high­lighted how Morocco’s pres­ence in the com­pe­ti­tion has evolved over time. Moroccan pro­duc­ers achieved their best per­for­mance in 2020, win­ning three awards, after earn­ing one award in 2019 and none in 2018.

Industry par­tic­i­pants described those results as a turn­ing point. Djamel Belhaouci, man­ager at Les Huiles Précieuses, told Olive Oil Times that the awards reflected grow­ing atten­tion to qual­ity in Morocco’s olive sec­tor. ​“I think this is just the begin­ning of a lit­tle rev­o­lu­tion in olive oil,” Belhaouci said.

Other pro­duc­ers have empha­sized the role inter­na­tional com­pe­ti­tions can play in help­ing Moroccan oils gain vis­i­bil­ity abroad. Omar Tagnaouti, export and devel­op­ment man­ager at the farm­ing group Olea, whose Zouitina brand won a Gold Award in New York, said the com­pe­ti­tion pro­vides a global plat­form. “[The NYIOOC] helps us to mar­ket our brand,” he told Olive Oil Times, adding that the recog­ni­tion con­firms Morocco is ​“going in the right direc­tion” on qual­ity.