Morocco’s Olive Oil Crisis: Prices Soar as Government Intervenes

Olive oil at 150 dirhams next season? Olives are currently sold on the tree at 15 dirhams per kilo, say the operators. Corollary: olive oil will be sold next season at 150 dirhams per liter. "Without strong intervention by the ministry, this path will lead to a catastrophic year. It won’t just be the oil that will be sold at 150 DH. Factories will close and workers will be laid off," warned Kamal Ben Khaled, RNI parliamentarian and president of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services of the Marrakech-Settat region, during the last oral question session of the House of Advisors. Currently, the number of industrial olive processing units threatened with bankruptcy is around more than 150. In 2023, prices have seen a 30% increase at a time when neighboring and competing countries of Morocco were also facing the same difficulty. This year, things have changed. Unlike Morocco, Greece and Egypt have a good harvest.

Faced with the catastrophic situation in the olive oil sector and the speculation of certain players, Mohamed Sadiki, Minister of Agriculture, held a meeting last Saturday with representatives of the Federation of the Moroccan Agricultural Products Canning Industries (FICOPAM) at the end of which several measures were taken, reports L’Économiste. These measures are: ensure access to raw materials under good conditions in order to preserve the production capacities of the processing sector, put in place mechanisms to fight against the informal sector and speculative practices that hinder the proper functioning of the olive oil products market and accelerate the implementation of the decree setting the dates for the olive harvest from the next season, maintain the system limiting the sale of low value-added olive oil products. It is also a question of accelerating the publication of the texts relating to the implementation of the provisions of the 2023-2030 program contract of the olive oil sector, in particular the incentives for the diversification of exports.