Chicken Prices Soar in Morocco as Supply and Demand Shift

This sustained increase in the market price of chicken is explained by the law of supply and demand, explained Chaouki Jirari, general director of the Interprofessional Federation of the Poultry Sector (FISA). "When supply is greater than demand, prices fall. This is what we saw during the lockdown. Demand fell by nearly 50% at a time when supply was in surplus and consequently prices returned to lower levels, even 7 to 6 dirhams per kilo.

Currently, it is the restoration of the supply-demand balance that has led to the rise in prices on the market. Yet the poultry sector is one of the sectors that operated at full capacity during the lockdown. But the fact remains that the professionals in the sector have been impacted in one way or another. "The breeders lost a lot of money during this period. This situation has prompted a good number of professionals to set up new batches and reduce their production," explains the director of Fisa.

Apart from that, the breeders did not benefit from the aid that the state granted to certain sectors. And even if the sector remained operational during the lockdown, "the cash flow losses are estimated, to date, at 4 billion dirhams, including 3 billion dirhams during the lockdown and 1 billion dirhams after the gradual lifting of lockdown measures," notes Chaouki Jirari.

Fisa had defined a recovery plan supported by the supervisory ministry and which includes, among other things, the upgrading of traditional slaughterhouses (Riyachates), the construction of a wholesale poultry market in Casablanca, and the reclassification of poultry farmers as an agricultural activity and not a commercial one. "We are waiting for the activation of all these measures. The supervisory authority is on our side, but the Ministry of Finance must also do its part. The poultry farmers are expecting a lot from the authorities for the relaunch of the sector."