Morocco To Increase oilseed Crops To Depend less On Vegetable-oil Imports

 

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By Samira Arabi

Morocco News Tribune

 

 

Agadir, Morocco | Morocco’s agriculture ministry and Folea, Morocco’s oilseed-industry federation, signed an accord that would allow the oilseeds to be sown on 127,000 hectares (313,871 acres), according to a statement Tuesday.

According to business website Bloomberg, “farmers would plant sunflowers on 85,000 hectares by 2020 under the plan and rapeseed on 42,000 hectares, according to the statement,”

Morocco’s move is to almost triple the area seeded with oilseed crops in the country by 2020 in order to reduce the country’s dependence on vegetable-oil imports.

“Local production of cooking oil would rise to 93,000 metric tons a year, meeting 19 percent of national needs, from respective equivalents of 8,000 tons and 2 percent now, it showed,” the same source added.