300 additional hectares to be certified in the Béni Mellal-Khénifra region

The department ofAgriculture continues the process of organic certification of agricultural production in the regions. This time it is the turn of Beni Mellal-Khenifra. The ministry is, in fact, working on the conversion to organic of an additional 300 hectares in the region. Technical assistance will thus be mobilized in order to identify farmers or producer groups who will engage in conversion to bio. For each farmer or group identified, a detailed description will be established and a list of farmers with the surface area and the address of the plots for each group will be produced. Interested producers will benefit from training on organic production techniques, on how to obtain the subsidy for certification bio and any other useful information to enable them to strengthen their capacities (marketing, inter-professional, etc.). Likewise, simplified guides necessary for the conduct of the organic production orchards for the identified crops and self-monitoring and internal control monitoring sheets written in Arabic and French will be made available to them. The process should also result in the signing of contracts by the beneficiaries and theControl and certification body (OCC).

The identified groups will be supported in setting up the cultivation notebook with the issuance of the certificate of conformity for operators who comply with regulatory requirements and the issuance of the organic certificate. The 300 ha to be certified will therefore be added to some 540 ha already converted to production in the region. As a reminder, organic production in Morocco is governed by Law No. 39-12 and its implementing text which came into force in September 2018. According to data from Agriculture, Morocco is the second country in Africa to have adopted its own legislation on organic production, in strict compliance with international regulations.

For the control and certification of organic products, the Department of Agriculture has approved two internationally accredited control and certification bodies to date. The main species cultivated in organic production methods remain olive trees, almond trees, aromatic and medicinal plants (AMPs), citrus fruits and market garden crops.

In addition to spontaneous harvesting, 12,000 ha of cultivated areas are reserved for organic farming, for a total production of approximately 120,000 tonnes. 80% of the cultivated area is distributed between 5 main production regions: Fez-Meknes, Marrakech-Safi, Souss-Massa, Casablanca-Settat and Rabat-Salé-Kénitra. For spontaneous harvesting, the main species concerned remain the argan tree, PAM, carob, prickly pear and capers. As for exports, they reached a volume of approximately 17,000 tonnes, including 10,000 tonnes of processed products and 7,000 tonnes of fresh products. The main species exported are citrus fruits, early vegetables, frozen orange juice, frozen strawberries, olive oil and argan oil.