Friday, March 31, 2023
The second meeting of the interministerial committee in charge of tracking the supply situation, price level, and monitoring operations
The ministerial committee in charge of monitoring the supply situation, the level of prices and control operations held, Thursday in Rabat, its second meeting to monitor the state of supply of national markets and the level of prices of basic commodities, and to supervise and strengthen the interventions of the departments in charge of control.
The committee, composed of the Ministers of the Interior, Economy and Finance, Agriculture and Fishing, Rural Development, Water and Forests, Industry and Trade, Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, studied ways to download the various measures necessary to meet the requirements of the national market and provide sufficient and regular stocks of all basic materials, as well as measures to ensure By ensuring the safety of the consumer and preserving his purchasing power.
In this regard, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forests, Muhammad Siddiqui, said that this meeting was devoted to discussing how to reduce the measures taken by the government to avoid price hikes, highlighting that the supply of the market with basic materials is “continuous.”
In a statement after the meeting, the minister attributed the rise in the prices of some foodstuffs, mainly, to the high cost of production and fluctuations in weather conditions, adding that during the current spring, there will be an abundance of production of some agricultural materials, especially tomatoes and potatoes, which will be reflected in their prices. .
With regard to achieving a balance between supplying the national market and exporting, Mr. Siddiqui stressed that the priority at the present time is to supply the national market, as the export of round tomatoes was stopped several weeks ago.
The minister noted that the oversight committees will keep pace with the sales operations in the wholesale markets, and the factories of some materials that have known an increase, “so that the internal price of the raw materials used in the production of these materials is parallel to the global price.”
For his part, Minister of Industry and Trade, Riyad Mazour, said that the meeting was devoted to studying and finding “innovative means and solutions to avoid the rise in food prices, in order to protect the purchasing power of citizens.”
In a similar statement, the minister indicated that there are new solutions that will be implemented on the ground, and are being worked on on a daily basis through centers and regions, adding that some prices will remain the same for weeks and months, and some have begun to decline, similar to tomato prices.
In turn, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Nadia Fattah, stressed the abundance of foodstuffs, especially those that are widely consumed during the month of Ramadan, in the national markets, considering that “the volume of production that will fill the markets in the coming days will have a positive impact on prices.”
And after she mentioned that all local authorities and sectors are making every effort to monitor the markets, the minister explained that from the beginning of the month of Sha’ban until the 5th of Ramadan, more than 60,000 points of sale were monitored, in order to prevent price discrepancies.
For her part, the Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, Leila Benali, confirmed that during the meeting, some structural reforms were discussed to address the problems leading to high prices, especially at the level of wholesale markets for foodstuffs.
With regard to energy materials, the minister noted that a reserve stockpile for most of the energy materials exceeding 40 days has been secured, stressing that work will be done, until next summer, on the second phase of the energy efficiency experiment, in order to secure the stock of energy materials, including electricity.
(And with 30/03/2023