Morocco Urged to Cut Wheat Consumption Amid Food Security Concerns

During his speech at the first Morning of the conference cycle of the Le Matin Group, Rachid Benali addressed issues related to the rise in prices of basic necessities. According to him, "food security requires monitoring the supply of basic products, but also monitoring overconsumption". He pointed out that the fact that each Moroccan consumes up to 350 kg of wheat flour per year is not a good thing, as this volume is well above normal. "Today with the high cost of living, bread has gone up to 1.20 DH," he stressed.

Convinced that the economic crisis Morocco is going through is still long, in the sense that remedying it does not depend entirely on Morocco, Rachid Benali called on the authorities to reflect on the strategies to be put in place to deal with the situation without the consumer having to pay the high price.

For the vice-president of Comader, since the dams are dry, the management of water reserves in the dams becomes an emergency. He gave the example of a dam located in the north of the kingdom with a water reserve of 2 billion m³. He also proposes investment efforts for the transfer of this water to irrigated areas in order to boost production and achieve food self-sufficiency.

According to his explanations, free trade agreements are bad news for the agri-food sectors, to the point where Morocco has become an importer of certain products for which it was a highly sought-after exporter. He calls for an awareness of the authorities, so that efforts are made to promote local production.