French and Italian Shipping Lines See Surge in Morocco Traffic Amid Spain Dispute

Morocco has canceled the Marhaba Operation 2021, effectively excluding Spanish ports and causing huge economic losses for Spain. Moroccans residing abroad (MREs) wishing to join Morocco to spend their holidays there have been asked to use the ports of Sète in France and Genoa in Italy to reach the port of Tanger Med.

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This situation, following the diplomatic crisis between Morocco and Spain, has benefited the Marseille shipping company La Méridionale, which has strengthened its line with Tanger Med, launched in early December 2020. The company, a member of the French giant Stef group, aims to manage 3 to 5% of the freight market between Europe and Morocco, Jeune Afrique reports. In this dynamic, it has put into service two mixed ships that ensure the transport of passengers and road trailers.

With the Covid-19 health crisis and the closure of the French border, the Marseille company saw its passenger flow drop in February 2021, forcing it to reduce its offer to one ship. La Méridionale has also relaunched its two ships in mid-June, operating three round trips across the western Mediterranean throughout the summer. "We are satisfied with the growth of the freight activity with trailers, but also with express freight vans and new cars," Olof Gylden, the international commercial director of the Marseille company, told Jeune Afrique.

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La Méridionale hopes to maintain the course in order to recover the flow of fruits and vegetables usually transported by refrigerated trucks from Morocco to Europe. According to its estimates, its ships can each accommodate between 40 and 60 refrigerated trailers. "The frequency, transit time, regularity and environmental aspect of this line could certainly interest our customers," said Asma El Fali, marketing director of the Maroc Fruit Board MFB group, which transports 400,000 tons of fruit and vegetable flows in containers or trailers each year. And she added that this line "would be more efficient if it offered a logistics offer in its entirety, from end to end, particularly towards the German market, and not just from port to port". For Benoît Dehaye, the general manager of La Méridionale, the objective "in the medium term, is to offer a rail solution between the African and European continents via Marseille".

The Italian company Grandi Navi Veloci (GNV), already present in Sète and operating on the line to Tanger Med, has also seen an increase in its passenger flow during the Morocco-Spain crisis period. A subsidiary of the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) giant, GNV has been working for years to expand its network in the western Mediterranean to the Maghreb.