Drought Drives Moroccan Olive Oil Prices to Record Highs

Moroccans will have to spend more money to buy olive oil. Its price is likely to exceed 100 dirhams per liter compared to 95 dirhams per liter currently in supermarkets, and between 80 dirhams per liter and 90 dirhams per liter in normal channels, learns Médias24 from its sources. These explain: "At this stage, we cannot comment on the exact price that olive oil will reach, but given the current prices charged for olives, the price of oil will certainly be very high."

Three main factors explain this potential price surge. First, there is the lack of water. "Due to the current water situation, irrigation water has been suspended in several production basins. Producers in the irrigated areas, particularly from dams, are suffering from lack of water and are not irrigating." As a result, the olive trees are unable to recover the water and nutrients lost during the heat episodes of the summer, which continued into winter and autumn. "We are in the fifth year of drought, and the trees are tired," it is observed.

The second factor is the lack of rain. "As for producers in the rainfed areas, there has been virtually no rainfall this year, which is drastically impacting production." The drought is also behind the surge in olive oil prices. The vegetative cycle of olive trees no longer covers the period from January to October, during which producers had the possibility of irrigating for 10 months. Irrigation is no longer done for four to five months, and there is no more rain for the rest of the cycle.

Olive trees represent 65% of the national arboriculture, with 750,000 ha in rainfed and 450,000 in irrigated, it is also specified.