The Minister of Industry and Trade, Ryad Mezzour, and the presidents of the professional associations and federations of the agri-food industry sector (IAA) and of the supplier sectors of the agri-food industries, signed, this Monday, June 20, 4 partnership agreements for the development of local sourcing from local operators.
This partnership aims to strengthen local integration by creating synergies and win-win partnerships between the food industries and other industrial ecosystems, in particular the plastics industry, the packaging industry and the mechanical and metallurgical.
It is therefore part of the Royal vision of encouraging competitive local production with a view to strengthening the Kingdom’s industrial and food sovereignty and fits perfectly with the Ministry’s strategy, which is based in particular on a substitution approach. to imports.
According to Ryad Mezzour, “the food industry sector is of strategic importance in the national industrial fabric, given its role in food security and sovereignty. It is also a catalyst for the development of other industrial sectors with purchases of manufactured inputs estimated today at 18 billion MAD, of which nearly 60% are imported”.
“We have significant potential for import substitution of manufactured inputs which offers undeniable investment opportunities. The agreements signed today are part of a logic of mobilization and coordination of the actions of the State and the private sector to build a strong and autonomous ecosystem of manufactured inputs for the food industry and to create a virtuous circle of growth.” , he added.
Thus, a framework agreement for the development of the local sourcing of food industries in manufactured inputs was signed with the National Federation of Agrifood (FENAGRI), the National Federation of Industries of Processing and Valorization of Fishery Products (FENIP) , the Moroccan Plastics Federation (FMP), the Federation of Forest Industries, Graphic Arts and Packaging (FIFAGE) and the Federation of Metallurgical, Mechanical and Electromechanical Industries (FIMME). Its objective is to generate a trade balance gain of 8 billion MAD by 2026 and the creation of 7,500 direct industrial jobs in the long term.
For the operationalization of this framework agreement, three sector-specific agreements have been signed with the professional associations and federations of the various sectors of the IAA sector, on the one hand, and their suppliers represented by FIMME, FIFAGE and FMP, somewhere else. They aim to develop local sourcing in metal, plastic and cardboard packaging and in materials and equipment for the food industries.
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