World Bank's New support for Morocco

The World Bank prepares to provide new financial support for the development of industrial agriculture in Morocco, and give it a leading position within the Moroccan industrial exports in the coming years, through the improvement of the quality of production and access to global markets, and to increase the volume of investments and support for small and medium enterprises and the rational use of irrigation, seeds and water.

A source at the World Bank stressed that the bank will help Morocco to increase industrial and agricultural exports to be a locomotive for local development, in the framework of the second phase of the Green Morocco project, who came into force in 2008. The project will improve the agricultural production and ensure food self-sufficiency in all products, the sources added.

The World Bank focuses on developing a plan for the rationalization of irrigation water, which included about 50 thousand hectares, benefiting 16 thousand farmers, who managed to increase production between 20 and 70 per cent, and reduce the waste of water resources around 180 percent, particularly in the olive oil, citrus and fruit trees.

Morocco is from the first 25 countries in the world, which is close to food self-sufficiency, as the agricultural sector has paramount importance, and represents along with fishing about 20 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

Rabat exported, in the last year, worth 49 billion dirhams of agricultural products, mainly to the EU market, and the food industry's exports estimated about 27 billion dirhams of 223 billion from industrial exports in 2016.

World Bank grants Morocco loans worth $ 300 and $ 400 million annually for the development of local agriculture, improving its quality and raising its value of export. It is expected that Morocco will witness a good agricultural season this year, thanks to the return of the rainy season, which exceeded the annual double of the average of recent years, while grain production could reach 10 million tons, which could help in the return of growth to more than 4 per cent.

Morocco imported, last year, more than $ 40 billion of goods from the world market, of which 4.4 billion for purchases of food, with an increase of 25 per cent, while wheat purchases worth 12 billion dirhams, with an increase of 49 per cent.