March 30, 2010

Morocco looks to Ireland for meat

A veterinary delegation from Morocco recently visited Ireland with the view to establishing bi-lateral export certification for both beef and livestock, according to James O'Donnell, Emerging Markets Director at Bord Bia.

Initial outcomes from the visit have been favourable with strong indications that workable certification can be agreed.

Morocco is a significant live importer of both breeding heifers and veal calves for finishing. Annual imports amount to around 30,000 head with the majority being breeding dairy stock. The main EU suppliers are France, Holland and Germany.

Several agricultural sectors have been protected by the government mainly through prohibitive import tariffs as a mean to support the income of domestic producers. Beef imports faced a prohibitive tariff rate of 254%.

However, Morocco granted modest import quotas and tariff rate quotas (TRQs) to the EU and the US respectively.

For the EU an annual import quota of 4,000 tonnes is envisaged in the provisions of the association agreement between Morocco and the EU with a reduction of 82.3% on the basic tariffs.

Up to recently EU beef has been banned due to BSE but Morocco has now agreed certification with France.

Military institutions are exonerated from all taxes and duties. The Moroccan Royal Armed Forces through the Supply Commission of the Southern Provinces makes direct import purchases for the military stationed in the southern Sahara provinces.

These imports of frozen quarter carcase beef and full carcase sheepmeat takes place through yearly tenders. The tenders are managed by the Office of Exportation and Commercialisation (OCE).

On average, imports of red meat for the military can reach 10,000 tonnes per year, shared equally between beef and sheepmeat. The usual import origins are Argentina (beef) and Australia (sheep meat).