Fruits and vegetables: Marketing channels under the magnifying glass
The subject of the fact-finding mission relating to the distribution and marketing channels of agricultural products attracted a great deal of attention. Proof of this is the fact that two ministers went to the House of Representatives to attend the first meeting of the Commission on Productive Sectors which was to present its report.
Those ministers are Mohamed Sadiki, in charge of Agriculture, and Ryad Mezzour, in charge of Trade and Industry. Many MPs attended this meeting, the subject of which is highly topical, particularly in the context of the soaring prices of agricultural products and where intermediaries were officially blamed. It should be noted that the work of this mission started a year ago.
After the debate inside the Commission, the voluminous report, which includes some sixty recommendations, will be discussed in plenary session of the House of Representatives. Given the relevance of what the Commission recommends, this work will be of great use for the line ministries of Agriculture and the Interior, especially if these ministries really want to reform this black spot in the distribution and marketing circuits for agricultural products. In the meantime, for the Minister of Agriculture, the problem posed in the agricultural sector lies in the move to the inspection of quantities of fruit and vegetables. According to the report of the mission which presented its conclusions before the Commission of the Productive Sectors, more than 9 million tons of the national production are marketed in the domestic market, that is to say nearly 80% of the total production. Of this total, only 3.5 million tons pass through wholesale markets. It should be noted that e-commerce is faced with the problem of quality control, which requires the establishment of specifications and of a legal framework. For the minister, the wholesale markets must move to the stage of digitization which encourages transparency. In addition, program contracts are important to support marketing. In this case, the Minister is formal: only field visits make it possible to identify the problems that plague the operation of distribution and marketing of agricultural products. The Minister considers that model marketplaces remain the best alternative for solving a large part of the problems posed.
Mohamed CHAOUI
