The country said its poultry imports are subject to strict control measures.
Rabat – Morocco has not recorded any case of the bird flu virus in Moroccan farms, according to Morocco’s Federation for the Poultry Breeding Sector.
The President of the Interprofessional Federation of the Poultry Sector (FISA), Youssef Alaoui assured that all imported poultry products are subject to strict control by the Moroccan National Office of Food Safety (ONSSA).
The statement followed concerns after the emergence of bird flu outbreaks in several countries in EU, Africa and Asia.
He told Moroccan television channel 2M that ONSSA is in charge of conducting laboratory tests on imported poultry products.
The FISA president emphasized that influenzae infection is not transmittable to humans, Alaoui said, reassuring citizens of the safety of poultry meat products and eggs.
The expenses of production in the poultry sector decreased slightly during the beginning of 2021 while prices of poultry products marked a slight increase
The president of the federation justified the increase of the cost due to the high price of sales of feedstocks in the international market. As food for poultry gets more expensive, so does the product.
Al Alaoui said there are about 9,000 farms in Morocco in charge of raising poultry and chicks.
A number of professionals at these farms have incurred huge losses as they sell their products at lower prices than the expenses they pay to produce.
The expert also warned that the supply is large but the demand is limited by the lack of orders from fast food stores and restaurants in recent times.
COVID-19 caused significant losses in Morocco’s poultry sector. The losses were estimated at $443 million in the last months of 2020.
The poultry sector also suffered a drastic drop in demand of 40% due to a lack of demand as scores of restaurants were closed due to lockdown and the pandemic.
Recently, South Korea culled 6.1 million chickens as part of measures to contain the spread of H5N8 bird flu after 19 cases of the strain were confirmed on farms across the country.
In 2016, Morocco confirmed bird flu after laboratories tested 800 poultry units across the country.
Morocco imports poultry products from different countries.
The US Department of Agriculture announced in 2018 that Morocco would open its market to US poultry exports. During the same year, Morocco approved the import of Russian beef and Ukrainian beef and poultry.
