Moroccan lawmakers call for marketing reforms to curb food prices

Moroccan lawmakers on Thursday called for reforms to agricultural marketing and distribution channels, stronger oversight of intermediaries and a better balance between domestic food supplies and agricultural exports, as rising food prices dominated debate on the Agriculture Ministry’s draft 2027 budget.

During a meeting of the House of Representatives’ Productive Sectors Committee, parliamentary groups argued that efforts to curb food prices should go beyond supporting agricultural production and address weaknesses in the distribution chain, which they identified as a major factor behind the gap between prices received by farmers and those paid by consumers.

The Progress and Socialism parliamentary group said reducing the number of intermediaries and curbing speculation were essential to improving market efficiency and bringing prices down.

The group also questioned the effectiveness of regional distribution companies, which have been allocated nearly MAD 1 billion, and called for clarification on how they would operate and whether they could purchase produce directly from farmers to reduce the role of middlemen.

Ahmed El Abbadi, head of the group, said a parliamentary fact-finding mission on agricultural marketing had identified significant shortcomings. Some products, he said, see their prices double or triple after leaving wholesale markets, while losses for certain produce, including tomatoes and potatoes, reach around 30%.

El Abbadi called for investment in packaging, storage and refrigeration facilities, alongside faster reform of wholesale and weekly markets. He argued that regional distribution companies would not deliver the expected results without broader reforms to the marketing system and clearer organization of the various actors involved.

On agricultural subsidies, the group said it supported assistance for farmers and livestock breeders but called for effective monitoring mechanisms to ensure that aid reaches its intended recipients and achieves its objectives. This should apply to support for seeds, livestock imports and efforts to increase the breeding population of female cattle and sheep, it said.

The group also urged the government to communicate more clearly with the public about the state of Morocco’s national livestock herd, its capacity to meet domestic needs and the scale and use of financial support allocated to the sector.

Food security and export policy

The Istiqlal parliamentary group identified food security and the management of agricultural exports as two of the sector’s main challenges.

It called for a production policy based on assessing national food requirements and preparing annual and medium-term supply and demand forecasts. It also urged stronger production of cereals, legumes, seeds and fodder crops while preserving the competitiveness of export-oriented agricultural sectors.

The group said the challenge was not agricultural exports themselves, but ensuring they did not undermine Morocco’s food and water security.

It also pointed to the persistent gap between the value of agricultural products at farm level and the final prices paid by consumers, attributing it to multiple intermediaries, inadequate storage and refrigeration infrastructure, insufficient processing capacity and outdated wholesale and weekly markets.

Citing official reports, the group argued that fragmented distribution channels and aging wholesale markets undermine transparency, affect prices and compromise product quality.

It called for an integrated reform strategy that would include direct sales, digital marketing platforms, expanded storage and refrigeration capacity, and transparent mechanisms to monitor prices and profit margins, rather than focusing solely on building new markets.

Balancing farmers’ and consumers’ interests

The National Rally of Independents parliamentary group focused on the production challenges facing farmers, including successive years of drought, rising production costs, debt burdens, delays in subsidy payments and labor shortages. It also cited geopolitical tensions and disruptions to supply chains as factors driving up the cost of imported agricultural inputs.

Lawmakers from the group said agricultural policy must ensure both the continuity of production and a balance between farmers’ interests and consumers’ purchasing power.

Nadia Bouhdoud, speaking on behalf of the group, said consumers should have access to safe food at affordable prices, while producers should receive prices that cover their costs and provide an incentive to remain in business.

To rebuild the national livestock herd, the group called for a ban on slaughtering productive female animals for at least three years, subject to health and technical safeguards. It also advocated expanding artificial insemination and genetic improvement programs, upgrading slaughterhouses and organizing livestock markets.

The group further called for meat imports to be aligned with actual domestic supply shortages, saying this could help lower prices while protecting the livelihoods of Moroccan livestock breeders.

On agricultural financing, it proposed exceptional measures to address the debt of farmers affected by drought, including writing off specified portions of loans according to their value, subsidizing interest rates and strengthening loan guarantees for small and medium-sized farmers.

The group also urged the government to improve market regulation through advance planning of supplies, modernization of wholesale markets, monitoring of profit margins from farms to consumers and measures to combat speculation.

It called for better logistics and greater diversification of export markets while ensuring that foreign sales do not come at the expense of domestic supply needs.