Moroccan Milk Boycott Sours Danone’s Profits: How Social Media Activism Cost a Giant Millions

It all started with a boycott movement launched in 2018 on Facebook against three brands: Afriquia fuel stations, Sidi Ali mineral water, and Centrale Danone dairy products. These brands are accused of practicing excessive prices, recalls RFI. The initiators - the middle class - chant several slogans. "The boycott is stronger than the demonstration. This is not a one-time act, it is a daily resistance." This is one of them shared on social networks. The campaign quickly becomes a great success. 57% of Moroccans informed of the boycott say they have stopped buying at least one of the three brands concerned, according to several polls reported at the time.

"The impact is significant on our sales, on our market share. We are forced to take regrettable measures: suspend a portion of the volumes collected from our 120,000 breeders," said Didier Lamblin, CEO of Centrale Danone in Morocco, on Atlantic Radio in May 2018. This situation led to the dismissal of hundreds of workers. Milk cooperatives had been destabilized. In early June, company employees express their anger. They organize a sit-in in front of the Parliament in Rabat. "The government is responsible. It is not up to the employees to pay the consequences of the rise in the cost of living," chants a protester.

To get out of this crisis, Danone tries, in September of the same year, to reconquer the hearts of Moroccans by taking an unprecedented measure: selling the liter of milk at cost price. But the reconquest operation ends in failure. Sales continue to fall. The company records a total loss of 178 million euros in turnover compared to the previous year. "We were selling our milk at the same price as our competitors. But Centrale Danone was perceived as close to the royal family and the Moroccan elite. This facilitated its boycott," Emmanuel Faber, CEO of the group, will explain a few months later.