Rabat – The Moroccan state treasury endured more than two billion dirhams (200 million dollars) between December 2022 and March 2024 the cost of exempting cows importers from customs duties and from value -added tax, as well as the cost of exempting imported and frozen meat importers.
But all of this was not reflected in the prices, and the citizens – especially low -income – were complaining about their height.
On a tour of Al -Jazeera Net in one of the major markets, the prices of red meat ranged between 100 and 150 dirhams (between 10 and 15 dollars), which is meat that the seller says is imported, while in regular butcher shops, prices are still rapprochement or exceeding 100 dirhams (10 dollars).
In one of these stores on the outskirts of the capital, Rabat, the price of beef is 110 dirhams ($ 11) per kilogram, while sheep meat reaches 130 dirhams ($ 13).
The seller tells Al -Jazeera Net that the meat displayed by the source of the local herd, as he prefers to provide its customers with quality goods that are only available in local production, according to his expression, and he adds, “I want to provide the best to my customers, so I only sell local meat.”
The Kingdom imported more than a million heads of livestock, including about 167 thousand heads of cows and 906 thousand heads of sheep, in addition to 1724 tons of red meat, including 110 thousand tons of frozen meat, and the Minister of Agriculture, Maritime Fishing, Rural Development, Water and Forests Ahmed Al -Bouari announced Parliament recently.
According to the Moroccan Ministry of Agriculture, the volume of livestock in the year 2021 amounted to about 31 million heads, including 21.6 million heads of sheep, 6 million goats, 3.3 million cows and 192 thousand heads of camels.
The Ministry launched in partnership with the National Assembly of sheep and goats breeders a general census for the herd with the aim of providing modern data about the herd, its composition and geographical distribution.
Temporary solutions
The Minister of Agriculture has repeatedly affirmed that the goal of importing is to ensure that local markets are provided with red meat and the preservation of the purchasing power of citizens, but he confessed in the last attendance in Parliament to continue the high prices despite import, and also acknowledged the high prices of white meat (i.e. poultry) that increased demand As an alternative to red meat.
And see President of the National Assembly of livestock technicians Abdel -Haq Al -Bouchishi said that the high prices of meat came as a result of the failure of officials in the management of the agricultural sector, which led to the deterioration of the local herd.
He explained, in an interview with Al -Jazeera Net, that the import, despite its cost, remains a temporary solution and did not achieve the results announced by the government, which is to control prices.
Al -Buchishi said that fresh meat is distributed to restaurants and major markets only, and does not reach the butcher shops and popular markets, and therefore does not reach citizens with limited income.
He added that the state exempted livestock importers and fresh meat from customs duties and from the value -added tax, but in return it left the market open without activating tracking and monitoring tools.
He continued, “The capital of the capital who entered the import of calves and cows benefited from this crisis, even though they are not professionals of the Strip, so they benefited from the support of the state and began to control prices in the absence of any monitoring or restraint, and in light of the conditions of importing from an article that obliges them to sell at a specific price.”
Prices
In turn, the parliamentarian Nadia Al -Qantouri, a member of the Parliamentary Group of Justice and Development, believes that the great support that the government has allocated to provide meat in the market The consumer, according to her expression.
Nadia pointed out that the import door was open to a specific limited category, which resulted in a chaos in prices, stressing the need to roofing prices and limiting monopoly to protect the purchasing power of citizens.
The economist, Mohamed Al -Shulkri, does not differ with these analyzes, as he believes that the control of senior importers on the market made them achieve great profits at the account of the consumer, noting in a statement to Al -Jazeera Net that the current prices of red meat constitute a burden on the middle classes and also on those with low incomes.
He believes that the control of a few actors on the important economic sectors such as banks, fuel, red meat and poultry is part of the problems of the marketing system in Morocco, and they should be overcome.
Muhammad Awjar, a leader in the National Rally of Independents Party, which leads the current government, was more clear in a media meeting on the first channel (government) when he indicated the fingers of the accusation of what he called “the crisis merchants and those looking for a quick profit who practiced a crime against the country and the national economy.” According to his expression.
He said, “It is not possible to allow for a few an example that trades in Moroccans and accumulates fictional profits,” calling on the government to be harsh with them because it has enough means to intervene to end this situation.
What is the solution?
Al -Jazeera Net spoke to them that the radical solution to this crisis lies in rebuilding the local herd to achieve self -sufficiency, which is agreed with the delegated minister in charge of the budget, Fawzi Lakjaa, who explained that the high prices will remain a reality unless a local herd was raised, indicating that Drought and other reasons have resulted in its deterioration.
And websites quoted Gjaa, who was speaking in an interview with the officials of the General Federation of Moroccan Contracting in the middle of last week, as saying that all the measures taken by the government will be transitional and transient in restoring prices, and that the goal should be to re -educate the herd.
Although Abdel Haq Al -Bochishi agrees with the opinion that the rebuilding of the local herd (returning the herd to its previous levels) and supporting the livestock breeders will be the solution to the red meat crisis in Morocco, he refuses to consider the drought that continued for its seventh year as a reason for this situation, and asked, “If it is Drought caused a lack of width of meat, so how do we explain Morocco’s records in exporting fruits and vegetables to Europe? “
For him, other factors behind this situation, the most important of which is the imbalance in the agricultural strategy that focused on the production of the green and fruits of Europe at a time when it overlooked the production of pasture, cattle feed, grains, and cotton (chickpeas, beans, and whispering …).
Bochishi added that Morocco depends 100% on the feed imported in animal production, so a number of international events, including the Russian -Ukrainian war, had an impact on the prices of coarse fodder, whose prices have multiplied five times, which was reflected in meat prices.
The same speaker sees the need to support livestock breeders, and to pay attention to the production of feed locally to achieve self -sufficiency and low meat prices.
For his part, Mohamed Shulri expects that the local herd will not return to his former era before 2027, which will make the high prices of red meat continuous, which will affect the ability of families with limited income in particular to provide animal proteins to their children.
