Morocco launches plan to double vegetable oil production
Faced with growing domestic demand and rising prices, Rabat is looking to increase cultivation to reduce dependence on imports
19/3/2024 (Atalayar) - Morocco's Professional Federation of Olive Oil Producers announced an ambitious plan to increase the yield of oil-producing plants to 60,000 hectares in order to guarantee food security from edible oils, considered a staple food in the country.
"We aim to reach a sufficiency rate of about 15 per cent in three years," said Mohamed Baraka, the federation's president, during an interview with Bloomberg Sharq on the sidelines of a recent conference in Rabat.
The Green Generation strategy aims to cultivate approximately 80,000 hectares, including 30,000 hectares of rapeseed and 50,000 hectares of sunflower by 2030.
Currently, the Kingdom relies on foreign markets for its raw material needs to produce edible oil in the form of crude vegetable oils, which makes the local market vulnerable to fluctuations in international vegetable oil prices.
The vegetable oil needs of the local market, which includes approximately 37 million people, amount to some 622,000 tonnes per year, of which only 1.3% is produced locally.
The Moroccan authorities hope that this will change and have therefore set a target of 70,000 hectares of rapeseed and sunflower by the end of this decade, which will enable the country to produce some 126,000 tonnes per year and cover 10 per cent of the local market's needs.
According to figures from the Bureau de Change, the government agency responsible for statistics, last year's vegetable oil supply bill fell by 15% year on year to 730 million dollars.
The import bill was 430 million dollars on average before 2022, and this amount rises to 970 million dollars if the cereal import bill is added.
Al-Baraka, president of the union, which brings together farmers and companies in the sector, said that successive dry spells, the resulting increase in temperature and lack of rainfall have had a major impact on local production.
In this sense, oil plants are expected to be a catalyst to improve the resilience of the agricultural sector to climate change, due to the importance of the sector in Morocco and the strong drought.
It appears that the coverage of the Moroccan market's table oil needs will be based on the production of local oilseeds, with the aim of reaching the 15% target foreseen in the contract programme for the development of the oilseed production chain.
The area under rapeseed and sunflower cultivation in Morocco last year amounted to about 30,000 hectares, with a production rate of 1.5 tonnes per hectare, up from 15,000 hectares in 2013.
Lesieur Cristal, the country's largest producer of table oils, suffered from the rise in raw material prices on the international market, which was reflected in its business results.
The company's net profits fell 99% last year to 2.5 million dirhams - 250,000 dollars - after it cut the prices of its products so as not to affect citizens' purchasing power.
Although Morocco is dependent on imports from foreign markets, led by the European Union, Argentina and the United States, the Kingdom has not suffered a supply crisis, as the six main companies in the sector are working to build up a sufficient stock of raw materials and diversify import sources.
Morocco had an area of about 200,000 hectares of oilseed plants in the 1990s, but the area declined over the years as farmers abandoned the crop because it did not yield high returns compared to other crops.
Yields for sunflower and rapeseed are between 3,320 and 4,250 dirhams - 326.8 and 418.4 dollars - per hectare per year, compared to around 6,740 dirhams - 663.5 dollars - for wheat.
Agricultural experts say this situation can be overcome through the use of agricultural inputs, providing ample access to irrigation water and supporting the use of fertilisers
The oilseed sector expects a state contribution of more than 2 billion dirhams - 200 million dollars - to support agriculture for the remainder of the decade with the aim of reaching an area of approximately 130,000 hectares with an annual production of 220,000 tonnes.
Furthermore, to address the impact of climate change on agricultural production, the Maghreb Forum for the Advancement of the Oil Plant System recommended the need to provide seed varieties adapted to climatic conditions.
It also called for working to reduce the risks of international price fluctuations on the local market through price regulation systems, supporting and keeping pace with farmers to raise productivity.
The Moroccan Competition Council had stressed in a report published in early 2022 that the state must, in the face of rising prices in the South, develop local oilseed crops by increasing the cultivated area and supporting it, as is the case with wheat.
For this reason, the Council proposed to extend the procedures related to this programme within the framework of the new sectoral plan for green generation.
For years, Morocco's Olajino Oilseed Programme has been urging the development of local oilseed plant production to reduce dependence on imports and improve food independence.
The programme, funded by the European Union in cooperation with the Federation of Oilseed Oils (FOLIA) and the French group Terre Univia, helps Moroccan farmers who want to develop rapeseed and sunflower cultivation.
Among the measures that can bring about the revival of the sector, the Council believes that it is necessary to guarantee a guaranteed minimum price for the benefit of farmers, irrespective of the price of oil raw materials on the international market.
In addition, the use of globally efficient and climate-resistant seeds was imposed, and the government focused on keeping up with farmers, similar to what is being done in the sugar sector.
Experts working in the Competition Council emphasise support for partnerships related to agricultural aggregation projects linking edible oil manufacturers and producers participating in cooperatives or economically beneficial groups, while respecting legislation related to free pricing and competition.