Morocco has a vibrant and growing protein sector. The country’s farmers annually produces3.5 million dairy and beef cattle, 21 million sheep and goats and 413 million chickens and turkeys. Poultry is the top protein source with the median income of only $3,300 per year. Khalib Benabdeljelil, U.S. Soybean Export Council, Morocco says poultry accounts for 55% of consumption in Morocco. “There is no pork production in Morocco and red meat is expensive so most Moroccans consumer poultry on a regular basis.”
With a rising middle class and urbanization rate, expanding protein production is the top government priority, with projected growth of 20% by 2025. Brent Babb with USSEC says, “Most of that, almost all of that is for the poultry industry in Morocco. They also have a growing dairy industry.”
Production is predominantly farmers with just a few head and less than a hectare of land. Freeman, SD farmer Ardon Wek saw that firsthand on a recent trade mission to Morocco through the South Dakota Soybean Research and Promotion Council and South Dakota Soybean Association. He says, “There are a lot of backyard farms, small very very small farms. Poultry, sheep, dairy.” Of those, 85% are slaughtered and offered at local butcher shops. Benabdeljelil says, “Morocco is still a wet market for broilers and Moroccans like to consume fresh product, not many frozen products.”
However, they are modernizing their production and processing. Wolsey, SD farmer David Struck says, “The younger people have a tendency to want to buy from supermarkets processed chicken.”
Dawn Scheier, farms near Salem, SD, says witnessed that modernization at two of the largest feed mills in the country. “With the feed mills they do a lot of poultry feed and poultry is up and coming and they want to get it more commercialized and once they get a cold chain it’s probably going to be a really good market.”
Companies like Alf Sahel, the largest feed producer in Morocco, are vertically integrated with their own farms and hatcheries. General Manager Yousef Mikou says their feed mill produces 1.2 million tons of feed annually and produce 1.2 million chicks per week. That integration also includes chicken and turkey processing. “And today we have the biggest slaughterhouse in Morocco and also in Africa with 6,000 birds per hour for chicken,” he says.
Which makes Morocco a great customer for U.S. soybean farmers according to Geddes, SD farmer Derrick Scott. “It’s kind of an emerging market more or less because the people of Morocco are looking for more chicken in their diet and chickens eat a lot of soybean meal.”
But there is also room for growth as Morocco commercializes aquaculture production. Centerville, SD farmer Tim Ostrem, “The one area which the government is incentivizing them or really promoting them to do is to promote aquaculture.” Babb adds, “in the last few years they’re starting to develop an aquaculture industry with seabass and seabream.”
As a result, Alf Sahel is expanding to manufacture soy-based fish feed, providing another outlet for U.S. soy in the future and is currently constructing an additional facility to extrude soybeans to manufacture soy-based fish feed. Ostrem says that will be an exciting new outlet for future sales of U.S. and South Dakota soybeans and meal.
