The President of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE), Ahmed Réda Chami, pleaded for the development of an integrated and participatory vision dedicated to the marketing of agricultural products by involving all the actors concerned.
Presenting, Thursday in Rabat, an opinion of the ESEC on the marketing of agricultural products, entitled “For an innovative and integrated approach to the marketing of agricultural products”, Chami explained that this integrated vision requires the implementation of legislative, regulatory measures and techniques and a communication plan to combat the loss and waste of agricultural products at the level of distribution, storage and marketing.
Indeed, marketing is considered to be one of the most important stages in the agricultural production chain and is of great importance, given its role in improving farmers’ incomes, further noted the EESC president, recommending to proceed urgently with the reform of marketing spaces in order to avoid speculation and the proliferation of intermediaries, in particular by accelerating the reform of wholesale markets and by setting up a regulatory framework to regulate and rethink the role and missions of the profession of intermediary.
It also involves accelerating the digital transformation of marketing by promoting the inclusion of small and medium-sized producers, in particular by setting up an appropriate digital infrastructure and supporting the equipping of small and medium-sized farmers with tools to make it easier to market their products, he added.
This integrated vision, he argued, also involves the development of short cooperative marketing channels, as well as the encouragement of local trade, stressing that this requires reviewing the models and mechanisms of accompaniment and organization of farmers into cooperatives (cooperative aggregation) or economic interest groups (EIG), drawing inspiration from the approaches adopted by the sugar and dairy sectors, with a view to improving the conditions for marketing agricultural products and significantly increase producers’ incomes.
For his part, Abderahim Ksiri, member of the commission in charge of advanced regionalization, rural and territorial development, rapporteur for the theme, pointed out that the economic and social inclusion of the rural population requires an improvement in the income of this category and a consolidation of its purchasing power, in particular by increasing the profitability of the agricultural sector, which constitutes a source of income for the large part of the rural population made up of small and medium-sized farmers whose living conditions remain particularly dependent on performance marketing processes.
He thus recalled the efforts made in this area, in particular the major projects initiated through the Green Morocco plan and the Green generation to develop the agricultural sector and strengthen the performance of the production and export sectors, noting that, nevertheless, the integration efforts are strongly marked by the manifestly insufficient articulation between the production process and the marketing circuits of agricultural products.
The marketing system is indeed experiencing a set of organizational and functional weaknesses, he lamented, citing in particular the weak coordination between stakeholders at national and territorial level, in the absence of a global governance framework. and integrated marketing process, as well as the low capacity of small and medium-sized farmers to organize themselves to sell their products under good conditions.
In particular, this meeting, held remotely, took part in representatives of ministerial departments and public establishments, national and international institutions and civil society, as well as representatives of professional federations and associations.
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