Smuggled Spanish Goods Return to Northern Morocco at Triple the Price

Northern Morocco is known for the sale of foreign food products, especially Spanish ones, including cheese, halal charcuterie, chocolate, cleaning products, red cheese and mortadella. And all this at affordable prices. These products, in the meantime disappeared from the stalls after the closure of the border with Ceuta, are back recently, but this time at exorbitant prices, due to customs duties.

"Since the products have been subject to customs duties, the price has almost tripled in just 1.5 months. For example, the Chef mortadella that was traded between 56 and 58 dirhams last year, is now selling for 130 dirhams for the past two weeks," explained to Al Bayane Imad, a young owner of a dairy-sandwich shop in downtown Tangier. This situation is also explained by the fact that "the speculators bought every stock that presented itself. By making the product scarce, it logically becomes more expensive. That’s how a product that never exceeded 60 dhs, reached 200 dhs," he added, talking about the Chef mortadella.

On the merchant side, "when the products were not subject to customs duties, we earned more than 50%. Today, we are painfully tapping the 25%," laments the young restaurateur, stressing that "before the border closures, with 10,000 dirhams, we had enough merchandise for the month. Now, 10,000 dirhams is equivalent to the merchandise for the week."

In view of this situation experienced by merchants and buyers in the north of the country, "it is urgent that our investors and businessmen make an effort to offer Moroccans high quality products. I don’t like to give the example of Turkey, but today this country has products that rival those of the EU, we must be inspired by it," he hammered.