HIBAPRESS
The total support directed to import livestock does not exceed 438 million dirhams
Support for the national herd in recent times sparked a wide debate, in which economic data were intertwined with political interpretations, and in which real figures were mixed with some hasty conclusions that were presented to the public as if they were facts.
Misleading information was promoted regarding the support figures and its beneficiaries, and in contrast, the general context in which these measures were taken, and the exceptional circumstances that our country faced in recent years, especially the successive years of drought, the rise in global feed prices, and imported inflation, which affected various agricultural production chains, were absent.
From this perspective, the Ministry of Agriculture, Maritime Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forests, while facing these unprecedented conditions, adopted a strategic vision, within a comprehensive governmental approach, to ensure the preservation of the national herd, ensure the continuity of agricultural production, protect the food security of Moroccans, and avoid the collapse of thousands of farms and activities related to livestock breeding.
Boosting Food Sovereignty and Improving National Production Levels
Since the launch of the Green Morocco Plan in 2008, the Ministry of Agriculture, Maritime Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forests has placed the livestock sector at the heart of its strategy aimed at strengthening food sovereignty and improving national production.
Over more than a decade, indicators of the national herd showed that this trend was not just a theoretical choice, but a public policy that was able to achieve tangible results in terms of developing the herd, improving its yield, and raising its production capacity.
By reading the development of the national herd since 2008, we will conclude that Morocco knew, until 2020, a clear upward dynamic, both in terms of the cattle and sheep herds, driven by breed improvement programs, artificial insemination, and technical guidance for breeders, in addition to supporting investment in animal production chains, especially in large irrigated areas. These efforts contributed to modernizing an important part of the livestock breeding system, improving meat and milk production, and enhancing the sector's ability to meet national demand.
Thanks to the strategy led by the Ministry of Agriculture, Maritime Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forests, with the various concerned ministerial sectors, the number of the national cattle herd increased from about 2.8 million heads in 2008 to more than 3.4 million heads in 2019, a development rate of 22%, which reflects the direct impact of the programs that targeted the improvement of breeds and the development of modern dairy cattle breeding, especially within the large agricultural basins of Doukkala, Tadla, Gharb and Al Haouz. This development also contributed to increasing milk production and improving the yield of the national herd significantly.
The same applies to the sheep herd, which also witnessed continuous growth during the years of implementing the Green Morocco Plan, increasing from about 17.1 million heads in 2008 to more than 22.4 million heads in 2021, a development rate of 31%, and this increase reflects the results of the guidance and breed improvement programs led by the Ministry of Agriculture, Maritime Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forests in partnership with the National Association of Sheep and Goat Breeders, in addition to the generalization of vaccination campaigns and health protection and support for breeders in various rural and pastoral areas.
Protecting Animal Wealth
Vaccination campaigns against diseases also played an important role in its protection and development, as vaccination programs and health protection for animal wealth witnessed a great development since 2010, as the number of vaccinated animals annually increased from about 20 million heads to nearly 30 million heads in 2022, with a peak being recorded during this year. This development includes various animal species and within the framework of all approved health prevention programs.
This dynamic also reflects the size of the efforts made by the Ministry of Agriculture, Maritime Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forests in the field of protecting animal health, by mobilizing significant budgets to ensure the continuity of vaccination programs and supporting breeders in the field.
Between Crisis and Management
However, this upward path of the national herd collided, starting from 2020, with one of the most complex crises that the sector has known for decades, due to the overlap of the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic with the successive years of drought and the rise in global feed prices after the outbreak of the Ukrainian war.
The cessation of irrigation in a number of large agricultural basins for more than 4 years also led to a decline in feed production and an unprecedented increase in the cost of breeding, which prompted a number of breeders to reduce their herds or resort to slaughtering productive females to maintain the financial balance of their activity.
In the face of this situation, the Ministry, within the framework of a comprehensive government strategy, intervened with the logic of preserving national production capacity, as well as intervening to contain the rise in prices, as exceptional programs were launched to support livestock breeders, including providing subsidized feed, strengthening vaccination programs and health protection, and preventing the slaughter of females, in addition to opening the door to exceptional import to cover the shortage in the market and reduce pressure on the local herd, in addition to launching a program to reshape the national herd.
Today, the results of this policy have begun to appear clearly through the improvement in the abundance of supply and the recovery of the national herd of an important part of its health, especially for the sheep and goat herd, which recorded a recovery during 2025 and continued during 2026, supported by improved climatic conditions, as the total national herd of sheep and goats today has moved to about 40 million heads, a number that our country did not have before.
The Main Factors of the Crisis
The government's intervention in managing the situation of the national herd came within a proactive approach, in order to maintain the balance of the agricultural system and ensure its continuity.
Starting in 2020, with the beginning of the drought wave, the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the beginning of the Ukrainian conflict, the national herd began to face a set of challenges, which necessitated intervention to support producers to protect national food security from the risks of the gradual erosion of the herd, whether at the level of cattle or sheep.
The data showed a decline in the national cattle herd, in return for increasing pressure on the national sheep herd as a result of the decline in pastures and the rise in feed prices, due to the drought wave, which foreshadowed a major imbalance in animal production chains.
Import operations were organized as a mechanism to reduce pressure on the domestic market by preserving the national herd and containing the rise in prices.
Thus, cattle imports witnessed a significant increase since 2023, reaching a cumulative total of 257,000 heads in 2025, with this process continuing in 2026, and the same applies to sheep imports, which the Ministry organized during 2023 and 2024, and which were discontinued in June 2024.
Clarity and Transparency in Determining the Conditions and Procedures of the Import Process
In the context of managing sheep import operations during 2023 and 2024, the government adopted a strict regulatory approach based on clarity and transparency in determining the conditions and procedures, in a way that ensures good governance of the process and equal opportunities between the various economic actors.
In this context, a joint decision was signed between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Economy and Finance, which precisely defined the conditions for benefiting from the import process, the foremost of which was the obligation to submit an application, provide a performance guarantee, and adopt a minimum import of not less than 1,000 heads per importer, in addition to other regulatory provisions aimed at ensuring the seriousness of the commitments.
The time period allocated for import was also determined within a clear time limit that allows the process to be framed and monitored in a precise manner. In the same context, customs procedures were controlled within a circular issued by the National Professional Office for Cereals and Legumes, in a way that ensures the unification and simplification of procedures.
In the context of enhancing transparency, a circular of the National Professional Office for Cereals and Legumes (ONICL) was published on its electronic portal, including the conditions for benefiting, the methods of implementation, the provisions of payment, in addition to the deadlines, with the aim of securing the importers' commitments and encouraging them to take the necessary measures at the appropriate time.
The lists of qualified importers were also published repeatedly through the official portal, inviting them to submit their files in accordance with the provisions of the joint circular, in a step aimed at ensuring clarity and equal opportunities.
The government granted importers the freedom to determine the size of the commitment in terms of the number of imported heads, with strict adherence to the adopted regulatory conditions, in a way that balances flexibility in implementation and rigor in governance.
As for the support, the disbursement of a grant of 500 dirhams for each head was linked to a set of precise conditions, including submitting the original application filed with the competent authorities, and providing import certificates issued by the Customs and Indirect Taxes Administration, which include transport details, the number of heads and arrival dates, in addition to the certificate of the ships' arrival for maritime transport, and the health conformity certificate issued by the National Office for Food Safety Products, in addition to the legal and administrative documents for companies or natural persons.
Thus, it is clear that the import process was not open in a random manner, but rather framed by a precise system of conditions and procedures that ensure transparency, protect public funds, and achieve efficiency in management.
The general analysis of the sheep import process reveals a set of key conclusions that confirm its organized, transparent, and compliant nature with the adopted regulatory framework.
Thus, the import process was carried out in a framework characterized by complete transparency, without exclusion or discrimination, and by relying on objective, clear and unified standards. In this context, 247 importers expressed their desire to participate, and based on that, the process follow-up committee, appointed by a decision of the Minister of Agriculture, set objective criteria, mainly based on the chronology of the applications filed with the Office's departments, in addition to adopting a minimum threshold of not less than 1,000 heads per file, in accordance with the regulatory provisions.
In the end, 153 qualified importers were accepted, which represents about 65% of the total applications submitted. The list of qualified importers was published gradually through the portal of the National Professional Office for Cereals and Legumes (ONICL) in line with the progress of the process.
At the level of actual implementation, actual imports reached 488,789 heads in 2024, which is equivalent to 81% of the specified quota.
The mutual verification operations with the Customs Administration allowed to determine the numbers effectively qualified for support, which reached 386,965 heads in 2023 with a support amount of 193,482,500 dirhams, and 488,789 heads in 2024 with an amount of 244,394,500 dirhams, which is a total of 437,877,000 dirhams.
Imports: Key Figures and Timelines for 2024
437 million and 877 thousand dirhams is the value of support for the livestock import process
In the midst of the public discussion, a misleading statement was promoted that the support provided by the state to livestock importers amounted to 13 billion dirhams, and the reality is that this is not a direct support for the benefit of importers, nor public financial transfers of this size, but rather fiscal measures that mainly concerned the suspension of customs duties and value-added tax applied to the import of some livestock species, with the aim of encouraging import in order to reduce pressure on the national market and ensure price stability.
As the real support did not exceed 437,877,000 dirhams only. Therefore, presenting these measures as a "support cost" of direct financial is an inaccurate reading of the nature of public intervention.
It is worth noting that the customs duties that were applied to the import of cattle were set at 200%, and the value-added tax at 20%. These are precautionary measures, the aim of which was to protect livestock breeders from foreign competition. However, the successive years of drought and the deterioration of national production chains, imposed a review of these precautionary customs barriers, as keeping them would have led to a large increase in meat prices exceeding 220%, in addition to the deterioration of the national herd.
Outcome of the Sheep Import Process:
Customs exemptions and support aim to protect the purchasing power of the citizen, the logic of intervention was not based on supporting supply as an end in itself, but on directing the market towards balance through strengthening supply and reducing the gap between supply and demand.
Regulatory mechanisms were adopted, open to private actors for import, within a clear legal framework, with the final impact of this process directed towards the consumer market.
The data related to the production chains confirm that the main challenge during this stage was not only in production, but in ensuring that the final product reaches the consumer without sharp price increases, especially during peak periods such as Eid al-Adha. This explains the nature of the interventions that focused on price stability as a social priority.
From this perspective, importers were not the target of support, but merely a link in an organized supply chain, while the citizen remained the ultimate beneficiary of this policy, whether through price stability or through maintaining the abundance of supply in the national market.
