Survey: More than half of Moroccans run out of food, nearly a third skip meals

More than half of Moroccan households say they have run out of food without being able to afford more, and nearly three in ten report having skipped meals due to lack of money, according to new survey data that maps the scale of food insecurity across the region, before the latest wave of geopolitical turbulence began pushing prices higher.

The findings come from Arab Barometer’s Wave IX survey, conducted across eight countries between August and November 2025. For Morocco, the numbers land in the middle of a troubled regional table.

Fifty-six percent of Moroccan households said the food they bought did not last and they had no money to get more , below Syria at 65 percent, Tunisia at 62 percent, and Jordan and Egypt both at 61 percent, but still a figure that points to widespread and persistent vulnerability.

Twenty-nine percent of Moroccan respondents said they had been forced to skip a meal due to financial constraints, the second lowest figure in the survey after Lebanon. A third said they worried about having enough food to eat, again among the lower readings regionally, but still representing millions of households living with genuine uncertainty about their next meal.

An earlier Arab Barometer survey, conducted in 2023-24, found that 59 percent of Moroccans considered food affordability a serious problem, the lowest share among the countries measured, but still a majority, and a figure that predates the current round of price pressures now building across the region.

Those pressures have sharpened considerably since U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran in late February prompted Tehran to restrict movement through the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint through which roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas supply passes.

The resulting energy price spike is feeding into transport and food production costs across the region, with the World Food Programme warning that the conflict could push an additional 45 million people into acute hunger globally.

The kingdom imports almost all of its energy needs, meaning global oil price movements feed relatively quickly into domestic transport and distribution costs, and from there into the price of food on shop shelves.

The Food and Agriculture Organization has warned that rising fuel and fertiliser costs could reduce agricultural output and tighten food supplies in the months ahead, meaning the full impact of the current shock may not yet be visible in the data.

. Economists note that Morocco is not facing a drought this year, which should support domestic food production and limit pressure on locally grown staples. Energy prices remain below the $100-per-barrel threshold widely seen as a critical stress level for import-dependent economies.
But the survey data makes clear that Morocco was already carrying a significant burden before the latest shocks arrived.

Arab Barometer’s authors describe food insecurity in the region not as a crisis caused by any single event, but as a structural failure shaped by inequality, import dependence and inadequate social protection , one that each new external shock hits harder than the last.