Moroccan Cooperatives Embrace Digital Solutions Amid Pandemic Challenges

Visual identity, marketing training, creation of electronic platforms for sales, home delivery... 250 specialists have been involved to help cooperatives that have stopped in terms of digital and e-commerce. "250 volunteers (including legal entities, individuals, Moroccans living abroad, associations...) have registered on the Office’s website to offer their voluntary assistance to the 820 cooperatives registered on our site and who have expressed the need," he confides to L’Économiste.

"It is 4% of the active population that we cannot afford to let sink without doing anything," says Youssef Hosni, director of the Office for the Development of Cooperation (ODECO). Morocco has more than 27,000 cooperatives, 35% of which are women. In addition to the drop in agricultural production, the biggest difficulty for cooperatives is marketing during this confinement period.

Based on this observation, it was planned to give the necessary basics to these cooperatives to enable them to survive by changing their marketing model. "Thus, home delivery solutions, in collaboration with a specialized SME, have been found for some. ODECO has also been approached by specialists to create several marketing platforms. Finally, discussions are underway with Jumia and the Post Office (Amana) for this aspect," the same source specifies.