The export of olive oil releases the claim for the investigation … and the producers are silent

Voices from the consumer protection associations called for opening an investigation into the numbers of Moroccan olive oil exports towards the European Union, which amounted to 841 tons in the 2024/2025 season, surprisingly, because the “fictional export volume that took place”, contradicts and the absence of self -sufficiency in this article, in light of its high prices to unprecedented record levels.

In response to a controversy raised by new figures revealed- recently- the European Commission, about the imports of the European Union from Moroccan olive oil, the government’s official spokesman, Mustafa Baitas, told reporters: “Regarding export I can say that it matters a certain type of oil, is known as ‘extra viege’, which is olive oil that has certain ingredients and characteristics,” adding that it is “mostly subject Contracting “between Morocco and its commercial partners.

Hespress tried to communicate with a number of professionals producing olive oil to interact with European numbers, but without getting an answer.

Professionals continued to complain about the decline in production due to the repercussions of drought, amid the demands of opening the door for import.

Ali Satour, President of the Moroccan Association for the Defense of Consumer Rights, called for “an investigation into the asylum of professionals for export in this period that defined drought, lack of production and high prices.”

“These numbers are inconsistent with the high prices, which are still and the Moroccan consumer is still being linked.”

The spokesman expressed an understanding of the existence of exports of olive oil during this season under “binding export contracts for professionals”, and said: “Otherwise, it needs to open an investigation.”

The President of the Moroccan Association for the Defense of Consumer Rights stressed the importance of “these contracts include items that always put the Moroccan local market at the forefront.”

For his part, Bouazza Al -Kharti, President of the Moroccan University for Consumer Rights, said that “the volume of exports can be understood by the existence of export contracts that obligate professionals, and their violation of their exposure to financial penalties.”

Al -Khourati added that his association is “not against the export of olive oil, as long as it comes to that high quality that the ordinary Moroccan citizen does not accept.”

He explained that “its prices were always very high, so this type was directed to export abroad,” noting that “the current rainfall is expected to end the drought path that struck last season”, and thus “enhancing olive oil production again, and also exports.”

The Moroccan consumer’s rights defender attributed the high prices of olive oil to the “national market defect and poor monitoring,” as he put it.