Moroccan Dairy Crisis: Drought and Rising Costs Lead to Nationwide Milk Shortage

For a few weeks now, Moroccans have been complaining about the rapid depletion of milk on store shelves. The supermarkets claim that "the quantity supplied to them is less, while the milk was running out at the end of the week, because the supply process was slowing down."

According to l’Opinion, this situation would be partly attributable to the heavy losses recorded by breeders for months, due to the drought. Questioned, Abdelhak Boutchichi, president of the National Association of Livestock Technicians, stressed that the Russian-Ukrainian war is also at the origin of this crisis, as its repercussions have affected the high cost of imported compound feeds.

Thus, breeders are facing an increase in expenses and the cost of raising cows and milk production. As a result, many breeders have been forced to reduce the frequency of dairy cow breeding and others have been forced to sell their herd and thus stop their activity, he explained. The latter have called on the government to take urgent measures to avoid the worst.

Speaking on the subject, government spokesman Mustapha Baitas had indicated that the executive has already met with professionals to discuss the means of intervention to maintain this substance at its usual levels. For his part, the Minister of Agriculture, Mohammed Sadiki, said a few days ago that there are many measures that will be activated in the near future to maintain the balance of the dairy production chain in Morocco and the income of producers.