Marrakech – Trade between Morocco and Italy reached €4.75 billion in 2025, according to provisional data from the Economic Observatory of Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI). The figure confirms Morocco’s weight in commercial ties between the Italian peninsula and the African continent.
Italy now ranks as the fifth destination for Moroccan exports and the seventh supplier to the Moroccan market, with market shares of 4.8% and 3.8% in early 2026.
From Rome’s side, Morocco stands as the third African destination for Italian exports, behind Tunisia and Algeria but ahead of Egypt, Libya, and South Africa. The Moroccan market alone absorbs close to 15% of Italian exports to the continent.
The trade also runs the other way. Morocco ranked as the sixth African supplier to Italy, accounting for slightly above 5% of Italian imports from Africa.
Within these flows, Italian exports to Morocco rose to €2.995 billion, while imports from the kingdom fell to €1.757 billion. The gap left Italy with a trade surplus of €1.238 billion, wider than the year before. The official sheet also shows that trade actually peaked at €4.998 billion in 2024 before falling 4.9% in 2025.
The early figures for 2026 point to a softer start. Between January and April 2026, total trade slipped 5% from €1.623 billion in the same period of 2025 to €1.541 billion.
Italian exports led the decline, dropping 8.5% from €1.007 billion to €921 million, while imports from Morocco edged up 0.7% from €616 million to €620 million. The surplus in Italy’s favor narrowed from €391 million to €301 million over the four-month period.
The composition of that trade reflects two different profiles. Transport equipment dominated Moroccan sales to Italy at €926 million, or 52.7% of the total. Food products, beverages, and tobacco followed at €391 million, ahead of textiles, electrical equipment, and chemicals.
On the Italian side, machinery and equipment led shipments to Morocco at €516 million, or 17.2%. Refined petroleum products, base metals, textiles, chemicals, and electrical equipment made up the rest. Italy also stood as Morocco’s second supplier of machinery, a marker of its place in industrial supply chains.
The relationship extends beyond goods. Italian direct investment in Morocco reached a stock of €1.904 billion at the end of 2025. Around 200 Italian firms operated in the North African country at the close of 2023, mainly in trade, manufacturing, and construction. Together they employed 13,838 people and posted combined revenue of €1.6 billion.
With the country entering a new investment cycle, Italian companies increasingly view Morocco as an industrial and logistics platform for reaching other African markets.
In a January interview with Italian news agency Agenzia Nova, Italy’s Ambassador to Rabat Pasquale Salzano identified Morocco’s stability and industrial development strategy as advantages for Italian companies, while pointing to infrastructure, mobility, services, hospitality and urban regeneration as major areas of opportunity ahead of the 2030 FIFA World Cup.
This bilateral picture sits within a broader expansion of Italy-Africa trade. In the first half of 2026, that trade climbed 10% year-on-year to €30.391 billion. Italian exports rose 17% to €11.338 billion, while imports increased 6.3% to €19.053 billion.
Read also: Exclusive: Italian Ambassador Says Morocco Is a Linchpin of Growth, Stability in the Mediterranean
