Olive Oil Prices Soar in Morocco, Straining Household Budgets

Record rise in olive oil prices in Morocco. Now, you have to spend more than 100 dirhams to buy a liter of this product. This has never been seen in the kingdom. "This is the first time olive oil has reached this price. In just a few years, since Covid, it has doubled!" complains the manager of a small grocery store in downtown Casablanca to RFI.

"Olive oil consumption has dropped tremendously. The one who used to take a liter, now he buys half, or even a quarter. Now, we even have a 250 milliliter bottle!" he explains. A customer, for her part, says she deplores but understands this price inflation: "It’s too much. But it’s normal, there’s no production, there’s no rain! How can you have olives in these conditions? But I understand, times are tough. If you manage to get olive oil, that’s already good enough."

The severe drought that has hit the kingdom for six years has led to a drop in national olive production and a soaring price of this much-prized product by Moroccans. Faced with this situation, the Moroccan government had decided in 2023 to restrict the export of olives. At the end of last December, the authorities of the kingdom authorized the import of foreign olives, particularly those from Brazil.

The persistence of the drought and the scarcity of rainfall are forcing Morocco to rethink its agricultural policy. "We need to rethink the agricultural model in Morocco, knowing that today, agriculture consumes more than 80% of water reserves," argues Badr Zaher, a professor-researcher in business law at the University of Hassan II in Casablanca, quoted by the French media.