General

Morocco: Consumer boycott campaign proving to be successful against political elites

Middle East Monitor, June 2, 2018

A
Moroccan consumer boycott targeting major milk, mineral water and fuel brands,
blamed for the layoff of hundreds of workers at a major dairy company, will
deter foreign investment and cost jobs, the Moroccan government has warned.
Some of
the dairy products on sale in Morocco by France’s Centrale-Danone, the largest
dairy company in Morocco [Facebook / Centrale Danone]
“The
continuation of the boycott will have repercussions on national and foreign
investments and Morocco’s economy as a whole,” the prime minister’s office said
in a statement issued late on Thursday.

Facebook
pages with more than 2 million users have backed the campaign, launched on
April 20 and which no political or other group has claimed but which aims to
express the frustration many Moroccans feel about their circumstances.
The
campaign takes aim at the largest dairy company, France’s Centrale-Danone,
Afriquia fuel stations owned by the Akwa group of billionaire agriculture
minister Aziz Akhanouch, and the Sidi Ali water brand – seen as symbols of an
economy dominated by large groups linked to a business and political elite, or
foreign brands.
“The goal
of this boycott is to unite the Moroccan people and speak with one voice
against expensive prices, poverty, unemployment, injustice, corruption and
despotism,” one of the boycott pages on Facebook said.
The
government said the boycott was hurting the agricultural sector and the
families of the small farmers supplying milk, a group estimated at 600,000
people. It urged citizens to “understand the situation.”
Centrale
Danone said on Tuesday it will reduce by 30 percent the amount of milk it
collects from the 120,000 farmers who supply it, saying in an email to Reuters
this was because of the boycott.
It also
said it will lay off workers on short-term contracts, estimated by a government
minister speaking on national television at numbering 1,000 people.
Unlike
the milk company, fuel and water companies have not yet announced any losses
due to the boycott and have declined to comment. However Les Eaux Minérales
d’Oulmès, maker of Sidi Ali, has been bussing about 80 people a week to its
spring in the Atlas mountains in an attempt to convince consumers its prices
are fair, while calling on the government to lower taxes.
A series
of protests over corruption and poverty which have erupted in Morocco this year
and last have been the most intense since the 2011 unrest that prompted King
Mohammed VI to devolve some of his powers to an elected parliament.
Officials
have been promoting the kingdom as a stable investment destination, but the
boycott and the recent protests could be helping undermine this narrative. From
January to April, foreign direct investment into the country dropped to 6.77
billion dirhams ($712 million) from 8.16 billion in the same period last year,
a decline of 17.1 percent.