Wholesale and Retail of Food in Morocco 2021

Wholesale and Retail of Food in Morocco

Morocco’s food industry is dominated by traditional grocery shops that are informal and often family-owned and individually managed, in addition to informal open-air markets. It is, however, expected that conventional supermarkets will expand to account for 30% of retail sales by 2025 from 20% currently. Food retail is considered to be a high potential sector, and programmes to boost the industry are focused on the modernisation of traditional food retail outlets. These outlets and small shops still account for 80% of grocery retailing. Retailers continue to focus on large cities for expansion due to their higher-income population and demand for imported food products. Food retail in Morocco remained stable during the pandemic. People stopped eating out during the lockdown, and ate out less since curfews were in place. This increased spending at local supermarkets.

Online Food Retail

The shift to online food retail was accelerated by the pandemic, and many Moroccan grocery retail chains have launched their own apps and have started offering delivery services. In 2020, Morocco had 1,000 active ecommerce websites, 300 more than 2019. Online payments also grew by 46.5%. However, only 2% of all retail sales are made online. Online sales, and increased digitisation of banking services are changing the business model of food and grocery retail. Morocco is encouraging tech startups that create retail solutions through the establishment in 2021 of the startup incubator and accelerator Moroccan Retail Tech Builder.

Report Coverage

This report focuses on the wholesale and retail of food in Morocco and includes geographic and economic information on the country and its food industry, including the size of the sector, notable players, developments and corporate actions. There are profiles of six companies that largely include the major players in the sector such as Marjane Holdings, Label Vie, BIM and Akwa Group.