Meat importers to convene meeting amid heated subsidy debate

Meat importers are preparing to convene a meeting this week to adopt a unified stance amid the ongoing public debate over the conflicting figures surrounding the sums they have received and the subsidies granted to them. 

The controversy has sparked divergent opinions, with each party interpreting the data based on its own perspective.

Industry sources confirmed to Hespress that import operations remain “ongoing” despite the heated discourse, adding that importers have even resumed bringing in sheep.

Commenting on the matter, Mohamed Jebli, President of the Moroccan Federation of Livestock Sector Stakeholders, asserted that “importers are simply fulfilling their designated role in the process,” emphasizing that “the Moroccan public remains largely unaware of the finer details.”

“We are not involved in politics; we are merely traders conducting business, nothing more, nothing less.” He further elaborated: “Morocco does not import only meat and cattle; it also imports wheat, corn, and numerous other subsidized products,” he told Hespress in a statement.

When asked whether the controversy over import subsidies was causing distress among importers, Jebli acknowledged: “Indeed, this is troubling because we are being dragged into political calculations that have nothing to do with us. The state decided to exempt meat imports from taxation to support consumers, not importers, because any imposed tax would ultimately be borne by the consumer, not the importer.”

“We do not have specific figures on the subsidies, nor do we know the source of the numbers being circulated or how they were calculated.”