With skill and lightness, Abd al-Rahim (in his thirties), owner of a live chicken shop in a neighborhood of the Moroccan capital Rabat, is busy with his work, with spontaneous movements that have become familiar to him, weighing the chicken alive according to the customer’s desire, slaughtering it, cleaning it and adding lemon slices to it before handing it over with a smile satisfaction of the buyer.

Chicken voices announce the arrival of Abdel Rahim to his shop, which is known to increase with the advent of Ramadan, and poultry meat represents more than 55% of Moroccans’ consumption of meat, which makes it an important economic sector, so what are its most important characteristics?

meet needs

Abd al-Rahim goes to the wholesale market in the early morning, where the market constitutes a central point of sale in Rabat, which gathers poultry wholesalers from the production estate, and from it is distributed to small units and live chicken shops (shops located in various neighborhoods and small markets that supply families).

Due to their relatively low prices compared to other animal foodstuffs, poultry products are a haven for proteins of animal origin.

In 2020, Morocco produced 635,000 tons of poultry meat and 5.5 billion table eggs (according to the data of the Professional Federation of the Poultry Sector in Morocco), including 535,000 tons of broiler meat and 100 thousand tons of turkey.

The sector currently covers 100% of poultry meat requirements and 100% of egg consumption requirements. The annual per capita consumption of white meat is estimated at 22.1 kilograms and 195 eggs.

The poultry sector is one hundred percent private, and Morocco has vocational training centers, and its pioneers have accumulated extensive experience.

Morocco imports one-day-old mother hens from Spain, France and Britain, while eggs intended for hatching are exported to West Africa.

White meat production increased by more than 600%, to meet the increasing demand for poultry products (Al-Jazeera)

A pioneering sector despite the difficulties

Since 2008, the poultry sector has witnessed a gradual increase of more than 60%, and the production of white meat and eggs has increased by more than 600%, to meet the increasing demand for poultry products.

According to the data of 2020, the cumulative investments in the sector amounted to 13.7 billion dirhams, and the trading volume was 27.4 billion dirhams, while jobs amounted to 140 thousand direct jobs and 320 thousand indirect jobs.

(One dollar is equivalent to 9.7 Moroccan dirhams).

The sector was directly affected by the Covid crisis, as an analytical study estimated the total losses of the chicken and turkey sector to exceed 1.49 billion dirhams by the end of 2020.

Al-Muntasir Al-Mustafa, head of the National Association of Poultry Meat Producers, said, in a statement to Al-Jazeera Net, that conditions are difficult for poultry breeders (Al-Kasab), and Al-Mustafa estimated a decrease in consumption by about 30% due to the procedures for closing the borders, stopping weddings and events, and closing restaurants.

The imbalance in the flow of distribution caused a decrease in sales and the accumulation of unsold live chicken stocks, in addition to a contraction in demand due to the decline in purchasing power.

Al Jazeera Net met with a number of poultry producers, who expressed to it the continued suffering of the sector, and their dissatisfaction with the high prices of feed.

There are workers in this sector who lost capital, and there are those who left the field.

The professionals are calling on the government to intervene in order to support the earners by exempting compound feed and poultry production inputs from fees and value-added tax, and to intervene to support the prices of corn and soybeans upon import.

The poultry sector currently covers 100% of the requirements for poultry meat and 100% of the requirements for egg consumption (Al-Jazeera)

Monitoring and pricing controversy

Poultry farming in Morocco is a legal sector and is subject to legal requirements related to health protection for poultry breeding and control of the production and marketing of its products. According to the data of the National Health Safety Agency, the number of licensed units is 251 laying hens, 59 hatching units, 7626 broilers, 885 turkeys, 230 mothers, and 3100 A transportation license, and this supervision is supervised by more than 700 certified veterinarians in all production areas.

While a report of the Supreme Council of Accounts noted that the monitoring of the poultry sector remains weak, and does not include many units, and revealed the presence of unlicensed poultry breeding units. The Council recommended reducing intermediaries in the sector who play a role in marketing and setting prices, and said that the intervention of some of them in an unregulated framework. It encourages unlicensed poultry farming and reduces traceability of products.

For his part, Montaser Al-Mustafa, who represents a structured professional association, stated that the sector is aware of some problems in the distribution, and in some direct sales points it requires more monitoring, calling for the need for appropriateness, especially with regard to methods of slaughter and hygiene.

Poultry prices are known to rise in the markets, which producers attribute to the repercussions of the crisis on production and the rise in production inputs due to the succession of the pandemic and drought and the high price of feed.

In 2020, Morocco produced 635,000 tons of poultry meat and 5.5 billion table eggs (according to the data of the Professional Federation of the Poultry Sector in Morocco), including 535,000 tons of broiler meat, and 100 thousand tons of turkey meat.

Revival in Ramadan

Abdul Rahim expresses his satisfaction with the request, and tells Al Jazeera Net, "The turnout rises a little during Ramadan, and prices have begun to moderate because the chicken is ready, and some of the problems that accompanied the sector during the pandemic have decreased somewhat."

Montaser Al-Mustafa explains that preparing to cover demand in Ramadan begins 10 months before, and says that to restore consumption to what it was, it takes at least about 8 months.

Montaser explains that production takes 10 months, as Al-Kassab (the breeder) imports the mothers of one-day-old chicks and raises them for 7 months and lays eggs, and carries the chicks to the farm and raises them.

Turkey sees the peak demand in Ramadan with about 30% to 35% of the total poultry meat, compared to 10% on other days.