Morocco: The sugar industry is affected by drought despite government efforts

Published 2023년 4월 21일

Tridge summary

The Moroccan government is taking measures to revitalize the sugar industry, which is currently dependent on imports due to water scarcity and stagnant growth. The industry provides employment for 10 million working days a year but only meets 49% of the country's sugar consumption. A new tariff schedule for sugar plants and increased selling prices for sugar beet and cane are among the measures implemented. However, the water shortage, exacerbated by drought and increased agricultural input prices, poses a significant challenge. The industry relies heavily on irrigated areas, and the production of sugar plants is already being affected by water reserves depletion.

Disclaimer:The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

The cultivation of sugar beet and sugar cane requires between 600 and 1000 mm of water per year. Sugar consumption in Morocco continues to rise, but the growth of the sugar industry has come to a halt, making the country dependent on imports. The government has introduced a more advantageous tariff schedule for sugar plants to reverse this trend, but this may not be enough to improve the performance of the sector, which suffers from water scarcity. Sugar industry professionals hope that this measure will help stabilize the performance of the sector, which provides 10 million working days a year. The government has decided to increase the selling prices of sugar beet by 80 DH/t (550 DH/ton) and sugar cane by 70 DH/t, with the aim of encouraging an increase in the cultivated area and a decline in sugar imports. Currently, national sugar consumption is estimated at more than one million tons per year and is increasing by 1.8%. However, local production covers only 49% of consumption, ...

Source: Agrimaroc