Drought and Fires Drive Up Date Prices in Morocco as Ramadan Begins

In Morocco, the drought has had a deep impact on local date production, while Moroccans prefer local dates to imported varieties, especially during the holy month of Ramadan. The drought has particularly affected the Tafilalt oases. Fires have also affected the date palm cultivation areas. As a result, date prices have skyrocketed. Even dates that were known for their low price are no longer available in the same quantities on the Moroccan market. Prices start at 45 dirhams per kilogram and reach 140 dirhams for "Mejhoul Royal" dates, making them inaccessible to many Moroccan families.

Local production has become unable to meet the usual demand, which has directly affected prices. Other inexpensive date varieties, such as Khalts and Boucerdoune, have become almost non-existent on the market, due to the drop in production. As a result, the price per kilogram of Boucerdoune varies between 45 and 50 dirhams.

What about the competitiveness of Moroccan dates? The large price difference between local and imported dates is a major challenge, especially with the growing demand during the month of Ramadan. Demand during the holy month exceeds the capacity of national production, forcing many consumers to turn to imported dates, whose prices start at 18 dirhams per kilogram. Moroccan production does not meet the growing demand for this product during this time of year, unlike other countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Algeria, where very large quantities are produced, stored and exported.

It should be noted that Morocco imported a total of 103,000 tons of dates during the period from October 2023 to March 2024, according to Eastfruit data. This figure is not far from the figure recorded in the previous season. This import volume also exceeds the average imports of the three seasons preceding the last one, it is noted. Morocco remains one of the largest importers of dates. The kingdom ranks second after India.