The most important agricultural event in Africa, the “Salon International de l’Agriculture au Maroc” (SIAM), which is an annual international fair and exhibition organized in Meknes and which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, is completed on Sunday. The organizers expect considerable economic benefits for Meknes, estimated at at least 1 billion dirhams.
Israel was very present with a dozen of its companies in the field who participated and presented their cooperation programs with Morocco. The participation of Israeli companies in this great international mass of agriculture supports the collaboration between Morocco and Israel in several areas including agriculture, since the resumption of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Indeed, the Kingdom continues its cooperation with the Jewish state, despite the vagaries of Israeli political unrest. The Israeli-Moroccan cooperation which is, let’s say, should focus in the future on the creation of industrial zones in Morocco, cooperation between the private sectors of the two countries and the exchange of expertise in the field of innovation. .
The volume of trade between the two countries amounted to 180 million dollars in 2022, an increase of 160% compared to that in 2020. Total Israeli exports to Morocco were around 40 million, of which mainly the export of chemical products (43%), machinery (19%) and transport products (15%). For its part, Morocco exported to Israel in 2022 a total of 140 million dollars, of which mainly textile products (59%), fresh products and food products (36%).
That said, to stay fair in the field of agriculture, if we stick to the statement of Nir Barkat during his visit to Morocco, ” 40% of the Moroccan economy is based on the agricultural sector”, there is indeed to be taken. In Israel, said the Israeli Minister of Economy “We have world-class technologies in water, desert and marine agriculture that could catapult Morocco’s agricultural sector to new regional and global heights.”
“In the context of global economic and climate uncertainty, we must help each other and rely on the achievements of technology to ensure the continued prosperity of the populations in Israel and Morocco.” , he added.
For her part, Einat Levi, an Israeli researcher of Moroccan origin, specializing in Moroccan-Israeli relations, indicated that agriculture is ” deeply rooted in the cultural and economic DNA of both countries“.
The Rabat-based Moroccan-Israeli relations expert who previously led the economic affairs of the Israeli mission in Morocco, said that ” Morocco could benefit from Israeli technologies that improve crops, reduce the use of resources such as water and fertilizers, and provide expertise in areas such as desert fish farming“.
Conversely, Morocco could in turn help Israel by opening new markets to Israeli companies, particularly in Africa. For Einat Levi, ” realizing full potential depended on finalizing the economic infrastructure between the countries, including a series of agreements still awaiting signature, such as a possible free trade agreement“. She, however, underlined that realizing the full potential depended on finalizing the economic infrastructure between the countries, including a series of agreements still awaiting signature, such as a possible free trade agreement.
On the other hand, cooperation, through signatures between certain Israeli and Moroccan agricultural institutions and universities, has happy beginnings. Both sides are already carrying out joint research, exchanges of students and professors and joint conferences.