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Casablanca – Frozen fish is increasingly being positioned as a practical way to bridge the gap between market prices and consumers’ purchasing power, especially during high-demand periods such as Ramadan, Secretary of State for Maritime Fisheries Zakia Driouich said Friday in Casablanca.
Speaking at a conference themed around eight years of the “Hout Bithaman Maâkoul” initiative, Driouich said the operation, launched in 2019, has played a major role in improving access to seafood during the holy month while ensuring the domestic market remains supplied with large quantities of high-quality frozen fish at affordable prices.
The scale of the initiative has expanded sharply over the years. What began with just three cities in 2019 now reaches nearly 50 cities and 1,100 points of sale in 2026. During the latest edition alone, more than 6,844 tonnes were sold, with over 20 fish species made available, well above the initial targets set for the program.
For Driouich, those results now open the door to a longer-term phase. She said the achievements should serve as the basis for thinking about how to make the initiative permanent and turn it into a more structured project capable of meeting the growing demand for frozen seafood.
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In that context, she announced that the Secretariat of State for Maritime Fisheries has launched a project study on creating a national network of frozen fish sales points operating throughout the year under a structured and organized model.
According to officials, the pilot project has already received favorable feedback from sector stakeholders, with consultations leading to concrete engagement from professionals.
Abdelaziz Obad, coordinator of “Hout Bithaman Maâkoul,” said public authorities played a decisive role in the success of the operation. Support from the fisheries department extended from organization to field deployment, helped by the mobilization of local and central authorities, he explained, adding that this created a climate of trust and security around the initiative.
After eight years of field experience, Obad said the project now needs to move into a new phase built on lasting mechanisms that ensure continuity and broaden its reach over time and geography.
The next step, he added, fits within efforts to strengthen the gains of the Halieutis strategy and should help secure a regular, continuous supply of frozen fish for the national market.
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