Global Coffee Price Surge to Hit Moroccan Cafes and Restaurants

"These increases come as professionals are preparing for new increases in the price of coffee (about 50 dirhams per kilogram) from the beginning of 2025," said the national coordinator of the National Association of Café and Restaurant Owners in Morocco to Hespress. Professionals "have no other solution than the intervention of the authorities concerned to solve this problem by reducing import taxes, in line with the situation in the sector," he analyzed. And to warn: "The absence of this intervention will directly lead to an increase in the prices of drinks in cafes."

A blow in prospect for a sector that has not been able to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. "The situation has become very catastrophic and is in intensive care since the post-Covid period, due to the tax burden and the rise in raw material prices...," he describes.

Younes Elyamouni, a member of the national office of the National Union of Café and Restaurant Owners in Morocco, does not rule out either the "possibility of an increase in the prices of drinks after the increases recorded in the price of coffee." According to him, professionals are following this international situation while awaiting the results of the Competition Council’s investigation into the sector. "All hypotheses are possible," Elyamouni indicated. "[...] Professionals cannot continue on the path of total bankruptcy. Necessity will push them to raise drink prices."

Discussing the crisis in the sector, Elyamouni stated that it has "become extremely stifling, many café owners have started to sell their establishments, and some have even closed them completely." To save the sector, he called for its "regulation" and a reduction in tax burdens.