Morocco’s Port Exclusion Costs Spanish Companies $500 Million in Transit Revenue

Moroccans residing abroad (MREs) and especially in Europe, will only be able to travel to Morocco this summer from the ports of Sète in France or Genoa in Italy. This is the decision of the Moroccan government, which has excluded, for health reasons according to the official version, the Spanish ports from the 2021 Marhaba Operation.

"Overall, taking as a reference the 3.2 million passengers and 800,000 vehicles in 2019, we could be talking about losses ranging from 450 million to 500 million in revenue for all the shipping companies, to which we must add the ancillary activities, cleaning, maintenance or catering," explains Carlos Labandeira, the commercial director of FRS Iberia, a Spanish shipping company, a subsidiary of the German group FRS, which usually recruits 150 seasonal workers each summer to strengthen its team as part of the Marhaba Operation.

Several associations will also suffer the consequences of this cancellation. Among them, the Association of Business Services of the Bay of Algeciras, which has announced a drop in activity in its laundry, lashing or maintenance services. The Regional Federation of Castilla y León of service station associations, which also feels aggrieved by this decision, is calling on the Spanish government to "negotiate" with its Moroccan counterpart to reconsider its position.