Market Overview – Morocco

Production

Morocco has an abundance of arable land and a temperate Mediterranean climate. The country is able to produce enough meat, fruit and vegetables and most of its dairy requirements needed for domestic consumption, in a normal year (one not affected by drought).^{Footnote 1} Morocco is considered the largest fish producer in the African and Arab world and was the first global exporter of sardines and pilchards.^{Footnote 1} Although the Moroccan diet is gradually diversifying with processed and ready-to-eat products becoming more common in urban areas, it is essentially based on cereals, fruit and vegetables.^{Footnote 1}

Wheat is Morocco's primary domestic crop, with production representing 7.3 million tonnes in 2018. The production volume of wheat has increased by a CAGR of 9.4% between 2014 to 2018. Barley attained the highest CAGR of 14.9%, while potatoes and olives experienced declines in CAGR of −1.1% and −0.2% respectively during the same period.

Chicken is Morocco's primary meat, producing 720.0 thousand tonnes in 2018 and a CAGR of 5.4% between 2014 to 2018. The remaining meats increased in growth with sheep attaining the largest growth (10.4%), followed by beef (2.2%) and game (1.7%), while there was no growth in turkey produced from 2014 to 2018.

Chicken and sheep increased by CAGR's of 2.3% and 0.8% while turkey remained unchanged (no growth) during the 2014 to 2018 period, while goats decreased by a CAGR of −1.7% during the same period.

Trade

Morocco is a net exporter of agri-food and seafood products. In 2019, Morocco's agri-food and seafood trade surplus was US$187.2 million with imports valued at US$5.9 billion, and exports of US$6.2 billion. Morocco's agri-food and seafood imports have increased by a CAGR of 7.2% between 2015 and 2019. Canada was Morocco's eighth largest supplier of agri-food and seafood products in 2019 representing a 4.9% market share. Top Moroccan imports from Canada in 2019 were durum wheat, frozen cold-water shrimps, lentils, wheat and meslin and peas.

Morocco's top agri-food and seafood imports from the world in 2019 were wheat and meslin, corn, raw sugar cane, crude soybean oil and durum wheat. Key supplying countries were France, Argentina, Brazil, Spain and the United States (U.S).

Morocco's processed food and beverage imports were valued at US$3.1 billion in 2019. Canada was largely absent from this market with only a 0.7% market share in 2019. Argentina, Spain, Brazil, France and the U.S were the largest suppliers of processed food and beverages to Morocco, providing 45.9% of the market share in 2019. Morocco's processed food and beverage imports increased at a CAGR of 8.0% between 2015 and 2019.

Canada's performance

In 2019, Canada exported over Can$67.0 billion of agri-food and seafood products to the world, with 55.6% of these products exported to the United States and 0.5% exported to Morocco.

Canada's agri-food and seafood exports to Morocco were valued at Can$303.7 million in 2019. Top exports in 2019 were wheat (84.9%), lentils (5.6%) cold-water shrimp and prawns (4.6%), canary seed and peas (0.7%) respectively. In 2019, Canada registered an agri-food and seafood trade export surplus of Can$144.1 million with Morocco (importing Can$159.6 million from Morocco).

Exports

Morocco's total agri-food and seafood exports were US$6.2 billion in 2019, representing a CAGR of 8.2% between 2015 to 2019. Canada was Morocco's sixteenth largest importer of agri-food and seafood products in 2019 representing a 1.0% market share. Key countries importing as much as 60.4% of commodities from Morocco were Spain, France, the Netherlands, Italy and Russia.

Canada's agri-food and seafood imports from Morocco were valued at Can$159.6 million in 2019. Top three commodities imported by Canada from Morocco included citrus fruits such as clementines, oranges and mandarins, octopus and plants.

Retail sales

Morocco's grocery retail industry is growing quickly with major international supermarkets and hypermarket retailers expanding their operations in Morocco. In addition, the country's rising middle class, the expansion of Western lifestyles and the acceptance of packaged and processed products have driven growth within this industry.

Rising per capita expenditure and average disposable income have contributed to increasing consumer spending. In addition to the price-sensitive consumer, the urban consumer in Morocco is more sophisticated and health conscious, evaluating the nutritional information of their packaged food before purchasing and consuming. In response, supermarkets are providing more 'free from' (gluten, trans fat) and 'no added' (sugars, preservatives) products such as Pralinutta sugar free chocolate spread by Casablanca based Madico PM Casablanca, Yawny 00% by Centrale Latière and Duetto vegetable based whipping cream, free from cholesterol and trans fats by Extraport Company SARL.^{Footnote 1}

The food and beverage (non and alcohol) sector in Morocco experienced reasonable growth (both food and alcoholic beverages attained CAGR's of 5.7% and 5.5% respectively from 2015 to 2019), a trend that is expected to continue over the coming years, albeit at a lower rate. In the food sector, overall retail sales were valued at US$12.0 billion in 2019 and are forecast to reach US$15.9 billion by the year 2024. The bakery and cereals category attained the highest retail sales worth US$2.9 billion followed by the meat category valued at US$1.9 billion in 2019. The fish and seafood and the ice cream categories attained the highest CAGR's in both the historic and forecasted periods (10.8% and 10.1% historically and 9.0% and 8.5% forecast).

In the beverage sector, non-alcoholic beverages like hot and soft drinks, attained cumulative retail sales of US$2.6 billion in 2019, higher than the spirits and wine beverage category, which had cumulative retail sales valued at US$416.3 million also in 2019. Similarly in the forecast period, non-alcoholic beverages are expected to have larger retail sales than the alcoholic beverage sector as retail sales increase by 3.0% to US$3.1 billion by 2024. In the non-alcoholic beverage category, soft drinks in the historic and forecast period yield higher retail sales than hot drinks as soft drink growth rates attain 2.4% and 3.2% respectively. Within the soft drink category, recent growth in bottled water has been fueled by concerns of declining quality of tap water. In addition, aligned to health trends, interest in both energy and functional drinks amongst younger and urban consumers, has been noted as Morocco's leading manufacturers have increased spending on new product developments and promotional developments.^{Footnote 1}

Of note, wine in the alcohol beverage category attained the largest retail sales of US$356.0 million in 2019 and is expected to grow by 4.2% to US$448.0 million by 2024.

Foodservice market

Morocco's foodservice industry experienced a 4.0 to 6.0% annual growth and was valued at US$3.1 billion in 2017. The fastest growing foodservice categories in the industry are Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) and Full Service Restaurants (FSR). Morocco's foodservice industry is mostly developed in Casablanca (commercial center) and Marrakech (tourism). ^{Footnote 2}

QSRs and pizza foodservice establishments including Pizza Hut, Dominos, McDonalds, Burger King and KFC now have a strong presence in Morocco's major cities (Casablanca, Rabat, Marrakech and Tangier), while French style bakeries and cafes are a part of the Moroccan food culture and daily lifestyle. For Ramadan (a month-long Islamic holiday not celebrated at fixed dates as the Islamic calendar follows a lunar pattern meaning that yearly, Ramadan occurs 10 days later^{Footnote 3}), most non-QSRs close for the month; however, select upscale restaurants do open for the evening breaking of the fast and most replace their a la cartemenu with buffets.^{Footnote 3}

For more information

International Trade Commissioners can provide Canadian industry with on-the-ground expertise regarding market potential, current conditions and local business contacts, and are an excellent point of contact for export advice.

• Overview of Trade Commissioner Services in the Morocco
• Find a Trade Commissioner

For additional intelligence on this and other markets, the complete library of Global Analysis reports can be accessed through the International agri-food market intelligence page.

For additional information on Gulfood 2020, please contact:

Ben Berry, Deputy Director
Trade Show Strategy and Delivery
Agriculture and agri-food Canada
ben.berry@canada.ca

Market Overview – Morocco
Global Analysis Report

Prepared by: Laurie Bernardi, International Market Research Analyst

© Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, represented by the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food (2020).

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