Morocco’s Cafe and Restaurant Industry Faces Crisis as Closures Mount

Bankruptcies are accelerating in the cafe and restaurant sector. In a letter addressed to the Minister of Economic Inclusion, Small Business, Employment and Skills, cafe and restaurant owners "alert to what they consider to be frightening figures concerning the number of closures in the sector in Morocco and the loss of jobs for a large number of workers". This letter follows a field study carried out by the National Federation of Cafe and Restaurant Owners (FNPCRM).

The Federation claims to have requested a meeting with the minister since January 29, 2024, but this request remains unanswered. It "suffered the same fate as several other requests we had made previously, either to organize a meeting or to carry out a diagnostic study to identify the weaknesses in the legislative framework governing the cafe and restaurant sector in Morocco, which has been exploited by several institutions, and which has flooded Moroccan professionals with revisions, instructions and exorbitant fines, also taking advantage of the absence of representatives of very small and small businesses in all its boards of directors limited to employer representation," laments the association.

It also regrets that neither the Ministry of Employment nor all the ministries concerned have acted following the many letters it has sent them about bankrupt cafes and restaurants. "The situation we have reached had been reported to the minister before, and we had asked him several times to carry out a field diagnosis of the current situation, and we had filed complaints with the ministry about the attacks suffered by professionals from various institutions, but the minister has proven two things to us: the first is that the responsibility is too great for him or that the bankruptcies suffered by small businesses in our country are not among his concerns," confides Noureddine El Harrak, president of the Federation. And he continues: "despite the worrying death of a number of companies, this has not prompted the Minister of Labor and Small Businesses to propose solutions, an ignorance that professionals cannot and will not tolerate".

"Social dialogues only begin with each sector that has organized and is organizing continuous strikes," it notes, asking the Minister of Economic Integration to provide clear answers concerning this latest letter "so that we can pass them on to all Moroccan professionals to take the necessary measures concerning the dialogue with the government". El Harrak hopes for an immediate response from Younes Sekkouri and the other members of the government.