The prices of vegetables and fruits are still recording significant increases during the recent period, due to several factors that enter into the production process. Mainly; the scarcity of water, the rise of basic materials, and high fuel prices. The latter has forced many Moroccan consumers to make different choices in the grocery aisles.
Barlaman Today threw a close eye on the matter, by doing a survey every 10 days and examining both market prices of Rabat & Mohammedia in different locations such as weekly Souks, supermarkets, and grocery stores.
Food prices in both cities witnessed a soaring remarkable increase during these days, which angered the consumer, especially the simple citizen who does not have any stable financial income, making them unable to acquire some types of vegetables, and even some types of fruits, without understanding the cause behind the high cost of these materials, which damaged and drained the citizens’ pockets, the thing that made them raise many questions about the reasons behind this huge rise in these inflamed prices.
According to Barlaman Today’s survey, daily essential food products required by citizens have known a skyrocketing increase: oil bottle of 5L at 110.95 dirhams, sugar at 12.5 dirhams, a 200g tea pack at 16 dirhams, the cheapest cooking, bread cereals at 7.9 dirhams, and lentils & beans at 18 dirhams. The price of vegetables ranged between 6 and 10 dirhams per kilogram, such as potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and carrots. The prices of fruits have also been known to rise, as it has become no less than 10 dirhams of all kinds, but some types exceed 15 dirhams, While the avocado fruit amounted to between 50 and 55 dirhams per kilogram knowing it is a local product.
In light of this inflation, a large group of citizens in Rabat expressed their grumbling about this alarming rise, in exchange for the high cost of living and the increase in the daily basic requirements of needy families, who do not have any stable material income but low sources such as retirement pension that doesn’t exceed 1250 dirhams.
“Vegetable prices have become beyond my reach. The total cost of my purchase at Souk reached 200 dirhams while it used to be no more than 70 dirhams. There are certain vegetables my family and I gave up on them just to adapt to this inflation, and I have nothing in my hand to do but wait for the day these skyrocketed prices to go back to normal.” Said Bouchra to Barlaman Today.
In its latest report, the High Commission for Planning announced that the index of prices at consumption increased by 0.9 percent compared to July & August 2022. This increase resulted from an increase in the index number for foodstuffs by 1.6 percent and the index for non-food items by 0.5 percent.
As for foodstuffs, these increases particularly affected the prices of fruits by 6.4 percent, fish by 5.2 percent, vegetables by 3.7 percent, milk, cheese, and eggs by 1.9 percent, and coffee, tea, and cocoa by 0.7 percent. percent, oils and fats 0.5 percent, meat 0.4 percent, and bread and cereals 0.3 percent.
At the level of cities, the most significant increases were recorded in Al Hoceima with 4.9 percent, in Errachidia by 2.2 percent, in Settat by 2.1 percent, in Laayoune by 1.7 percent, in Safi by 1.5 percent, and in Kenitra, Tetouan, Dakhla and Guelmim by 1.4 percent, in Beni Mellal by 1.3 percent, in Tangiers by 1.1 percent, in Fez by 0.9 percent, and in Marrakesh and Rabat by 0.8 percent.
Compared to the same month of the previous year, the index of prices at consumption increased by 7.7 percent.
“The citizen suffers losses because the salary is stable, while the goods are getting expensive. We recall that among the cheapest purchases that used to meet the needs of the citizen, such as potatoes and tomatoes, are now very difficult to obtain. Grocery stores have a profit margin of 3 dirhams in cooking oil while we are left with a profit margin of 1 dirham per kilogram of vegetables, and who’s really profiting is the intermediate between us vendors and the farmer”. Said Abdelaziz Benkar, President of the Jinan Al-Akkari Association and Secretary of Souk Al-Akkari in Rabat.
The purchasing power is weak, and numerous citizens expressed their grumbling about this alarming rise, the increase in the cost of basic requirements is dragging those people down, and their only source of income is a retirement pension that doesn’t exceed 1250 dirhams.
Chicken prices were affected by this inflation for the past month as well, however after The cost of chicken production was estimated at 22 in the market due to high prices of feed and rumors of poor production of chicks, recently, prices dropped back to 18 dirhams, this is due to lack of storage and fear of losing chicken, on the one hand, poultry professional called on the government to intervene to protect poultry farmers, urging for a legal framework that allows breeders to determine the selling prices. while on the other hand, some citizens skipped chicken from their shopping list.
The prices of types of fish and seafood, in Morocco, have witnessed a significant increase during the past weeks, especially “sardines”, reaching a peak of 16 dirhams while it used to be no more than 10 dirhams. Vendors attribute this rise in fish prices to speculation in the markets. In their interview with “Barlaman Today”, professionals attributed the reason for the high prices of fish to the high price of fuel and the lack of support by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, then the spread of the phenomenon of fish smuggling and the climatic changes that caused its scarcity.
Fuel, this is the word that comes first to everyone’s tongue once you ask them about the reason behind this inflation, while some claim that transport drivers benefited from financial support, others claim this is all just words on paper, and they haven’t seen the light of this support yet.
Many people have been protesting online and urging the government to act to reduce fuel prices. However, the government has defended the price increases by citing global disruptions brought on by the COVID crisis, the war in Ukraine, and the climate collapse.
At the end of the day, Moroccans have responded by continuing to use anti-government hashtags on social media to protest the rise in fuel prices and call on Akhannouch to step down if he cannot accede to popular requests for significant price reductions.