Rabat - Moroccan food exports to the United Kingdom have increased by roughly 40% since January 2021, more than 80% of which are tomatoes and citrus fruits.

According to Chris Woodward, British Consul General and Department for International Trade Director to Morocco, the UK currently imports 25% of its tomato and 60% of its sardine needs from Morocco.

Speaking during the “Morocco-UK Agribusiness: Trade & Investment Opportunities” webinar, Woodward recalled that vegetables and fruits topped Moroccan exports to the UK in 2021 -- with a total value of £ 312.6 million while cereals were on top of Moroccan imports from the UK (£ 23.3 million).

Moroccan watermelon and cucumber exports to the UK have continued to increase in the past year, he added.

“Agriculture is one of the main drivers of Morocco-UK post-Brexit cooperation,” said the President of the British Chamber of Commerce for Morocco (BritCham Morocco).

In October 2019, the two countries signed a post-Brexit Association Agreement; the deal entered into force in January 2021.

Under the bilateral agreement, Rabat and London vowed to maintain and consolidate trade relations as well as increase bilateral trade volume.

Moroccan and British officials have worked closely to review existing trade agreements, address market access barriers, and promote bilateral cooperation and trade inspectors of energy, financial services, health care, education, mining, textiles, and agribusiness.

Moroccan agriculture potential

In 2008, Morocco adopted the Green Plan to boost the agriculture sector’s production and attract foreign investments. The ten-year plan laid the ground for the Green Generation strategy.

It is a decade-long roadmap for 2020-2030 that provides financial incentives to small-medium size enterprises as well as large corporate operations in the Moroccan agriculture sector. The objective is to establish a resilient, blooming, and eco-efficient sector, with food security at the core of the strategy.

Hajar Chmanti, Investment Promotion Officer at Agency for Agricultural Development, said that Morocco has 9.7 million hectares dedicated to agricultural production,

particularly olive oils (1 million hectares), vegetables (260,000 hectares), and citrus fruits (126,000 hectares). 1.6 million of the total land is irrigated.

She further noted that Moroccan agricultural output covers most of the national needs varying in percentage based on products such as vegetables and meat (100%), cereals (60%), and sugarcane (43%).

Agribusiness in Morocco

Agribusiness comes at the intersection of agriculture and the industrial sector, merging the Green Generation Plan with the Industrial Acceleration Plan.

In 2019, the agribusiness sector generated a turnover of  MAD 161 billion ($16.37 billion)  with a total of exports reading MAD 36.4 billion ($ 3.70 billion).

The revenues came from 2100 industrial companies hiring more than 161,000 individuals.

To regularize the relatively new sector, the Moroccan government signed an agreement with 13 federations and inter-professional colleges, which founded the program contract for the Agribusiness Sector Development for 2017-2021. The parties recently signed an amendment to extend the program for another two years.

The program prioritizes the protection of food security, support of SMEs, contribution to rural development, increase in exports, and enhanced investment incentives.

These strategies empowered the development of a skilled and specialized labor force as well as the establishment of modern agribusiness infrastructure in the country (such as Agri poles), noted Youssef Fadil, the Head of Food Industries at Morocco’s Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Yet, Morocco still faces challenges related to technological development (biotechnology, for example), the evolution of Moroccan consumer preferences, and competition within the framework of free trade agreements, he added.

But the country has also continued to attract investors to overcome these challenges, benefiting from geopolitical trends and changes such as Brexit.

Additionally, Morocco has introduced measures to encourage local and foreign investments such as direct incentives for companies that invested more than MAD 100 million ($10.17 million) or created at least 250 stable jobs in the sector.

These incentives include exemption from tax imports on capital goods, materials, and tools as well as financial support in the acquisition of land and equipment, and the implementation of training programs.

The industrial acceleration plan further supports agribusiness SMEs and large companies with over MAD 200 million ($20 million) turnover.