Morocco is set to produce its first quantities of “cultivated argan oil” starting from next summer, the National Agency for the Development of Oasis and Argan Zones has announced.
The agency’s director-general Latifa Yaakoubi announced during the sixth edition of International Argan Tree Day and the closing of the eighth International Argan Conference in Essaouira on Sunday, 9 May 2026, that “With next summer, we will begin extracting the first quantities of argan oil from cultivated argan farms.”
Yaakoubi added, “This operations achievement would not have seen the light of day without the extraordinary mobilization and harmony between rights holders and laborers, and especially rural women, who represent the beating heart of our cooperatives. It is this synergy that translates findings of scientific innovations to tangible economic reality.”
This achievement is mainly thanks to the success of the ‘Development of Argan Cultivation in Rural Areas’ program, funded in partnership with the Green Climate Fund, which planted over 10,000 hectares of argan tree farms across 46 communes in the Marrakech-Safi, Souss-Massa, and Guelmim-Oued Noun regions.
According to the National Agency for the Development of Oasis and Argan Zones, the program has achieved promising results, including direct benefits for 5,300 farmers -over 1,600 of them are rural women- and expansion of infrastructure and certified nurseries producing over 10 types of genetically improved argan trees.
These field gains rest on scientific findings resulting from the partnership between the National Agency for the Development of Oasis Areas and Argan Trees and research organizations, resulting in increased growth rates of cultivated argan seedlings by up to 220% through rational fertilization, thereby accelerating growth to just five years instead of decades.
Beyond productivity, findings have revealed that these planted trees, together with the soil, sequester up to 60.8 tonnes of carbon per hectare while preserving a rich biodiversity comprising 129 plant species.
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