After recently celebrating its 300 years of friendship and trade relations with the UK, Morocco is now firmly planting anchors on UK soil to benefit from the opening of a new shipping route that cut travel time between the two countries from more than six days to only three.
The two countries signed a post-Brexit “continuity agreement” in 2019, and Morocco is now aggressively promoting itself in the UK as a credible, reliable, and fast trading alternative for British firms.
Managing the supply chain effectively requires a balance between sustainable production, maintaining inventory levels, and, particularly when it comes to fresh produce, handling logistics and transport as quickly as possible.
Morocco relies heavily on increased communication, traceability, and transparency throughout the supply chain to ensure the freshness and availability of products on supermarket shelves – and it’s a strategy that’s working.
As a result of Brexit, there is now £2.5 billion (MAD 31.2 billion) worth of trade between the two countries – but new agreements will guarantee that the UK and Moroccan consumers continue to receive preferential tariffs on imported goods, including free trade in agricultural, agri-food, and fisheries products.
According to El Mehdi El Alami, director of promotion and development in Morocco Foodex, the UK has become a direct partner with Morocco after Brexit, which has a number of advantages in terms of communication, traceability, logistics, transport, and, above all, transparency.
The majority of Moroccan exporters are already working with British companies, and are therefore aware of the demands and expectations of the UK market, which makes Morocco such an attractive offer to British companies.
“By experience, I mean control of the distribution circuit thanks to a modern logistics chain; respect for deadlines; the abundance of products ensuring a consistent flow of customers from October to March; the diversity of supply (including agricultural, fishery, processed and local products); seasonality of products; and the quality and traceability of products coming from Morocco to the UK,” the Foodex Director stated.
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As UK businesses tend to adhere to high standards of sanitary and environmental hygiene, they expect the same level of credibility, transparency, and reliability from the countries from which they import.
Morocco not only has a favorable geographic location with existing and frequent maritime routes but also has an agricultural sector that has demonstrated its adaptability and competitiveness in the face of the COVID-19 crisis.
The world today faces numerous challenges in areas such as climate, ecology, food, and energy. Morocco, however, has adopted a genuine energy policy from the beginning to conserve its resources and adjust its energy mix to the best of its ability.
This policy is manifested at an agricultural level by initiatives such as the development of organic farming, the upgrading of production to comply with international standards, and the marketing of local products to ensure that local populations receive a decent living wage.
There have also been a number of upgrades in agricultural areas with crops that are increasingly resistant to climate change (olive trees, almond trees, carob trees, cacti, etc.).
Morocco has been heavily involved in an extremely comprehensive effort to preserve genetic resources of seeds, crops, and livestock. From 2008 to 2019, the number of plant genetic resources in gene banks increased from 22,000 to 67,970.
“We’ve also embarked on a number of key initiatives including the agricultural strategy Generation Green 2020-2030; the comprehensive and integrated National Nutrition Programme; and the Strategy to Combat Childhood Obesity (2018-2025),” El Alami said.
As a credible and reliable partner for British operators, Morocco will demonstrate that it offers much more than a substitute service for British grocers by “perpetuating the trade that has existed between our two countries for 300 years,” he continued.
