Moroccan Textile Industry Faces Downturn as European Covid Variants Surge

"This pandemic has very aggressively affected the textile and clothing sector," laments the president of the Moroccan Association of Textile and Clothing Industries (AMITH). And Mohammed Boubou continues: "Practically all of Europe is currently confined, especially since the new Covid variants are wreaking havoc on this continent. As our activity is very linked to Europe which is our main market, our sector will continue to suffer from this situation." "Our minister has done what is necessary to protect the local market as much as possible, especially with the revision of the free trade agreement; unfortunately, Turkey has devalued its currency, so we find ourselves back at square one."

The consequences will be dramatic if the health situation in Europe does not improve very quickly, given that the local market will not be able to balance the balance and cushion the losses in this sector, notes Aujourd’hui Le Maroc. In this situation, industrialists are considering all the possible solutions to be deployed and the horizons to be explored in order to diversify the partners and take advantage of the best practices on an international scale. Thus, the newspaper indicates, they are sparing no effort to regain their position in the American market and in the Scandinavian countries.

It should be known that in exports, the textile sector lost 6.21 billion dirhams in turnover at the end of November. Thus, the value shipped stood at 28.25 billion dirhams against 34.47 billion dirhams achieved in the same period of the previous year, i.e. a drop of around 18% year-on-year. "If this pandemic lasts even longer, we have to adapt even more," warns the president of AMITH.