Le Club de L’Economiste: Agricultural emergencies

After the difficulties linked to the repercussions of the health crisis, the agricultural sector wants to regain color. Nevertheless, the exit from Covid-19 coincided with new episodes of drought.

“This situation has impacted the production chains”, according to Mohamed Sadiki, minister of Agriculture. Invited to speak at the Club de L’Economiste, he said that “the agricultural sector has tried to maintain itself, but the impact has been significant”. This was felt “at the level of the balance of the agricultural production chains, particularly those for animals”. Currently, the sector is suffering, according to him, from a“multiple crisis”. The minister stressed that “these repercussions were not foreseeable”. After a period when they had shown resilience, especially during the health crisis with a regular supply of the markets, without large price variations, they ended up being caught up in the collateral effects of this multiple crisis . With rising energy prices, other sectors have been affected. The price of inputs have increased, by 70% for some. This concerns in particular fertilizers and phytosanitary products… The supervising minister points to the “accumulation” effect.

Hence the importance, according to him, of the urgent actions taken by the government. This concerns in particular the abolition of customs duties for the import of wheat. In total, the Government footed 11 billion Dirhams (USD 1.1 million) in terms of subsidy to maintain the price of bread. Price pressure also affected fruit and vegetables. Sadiki clearly points to the “disruptive” role of intermediaries, and insists on the importance of the planned reform of marketing channels. Especially since the price is multiplied by 3 or 4 between the field and the retail sale.

With the new Generation Green strategy, the line ministry aims to modernize the marketing circuits, in order to limit the number of participants, while strengthening the promotion of the production of the various sectors. This is one of the problems diagnosed at the end of the implementation period of the Green Morocco Plan, which were defined as priority goals of Generation Green. Today, one of the priorities for promoting the continued development of the sector concerns the resolution of the structural problem of water scarcity.

M.A.M.