Two Moroccan leading dairy producers attended the 2019 Western Dairy Management Conference from February 23 to March 2. They visited dairy operations and participated in program pre-sessions, along with attending side events.
USSEC organized the second edition of this dairy activity with selected key professionals from the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region to increase understanding of nutrition, feeding, and management issues and help develop business opportunities ultimately resulting in increased demand for U.S. soybeans products, particularly in high production dairy operations.
The Moroccan dairy sector is composed of several small dairy farmers, cooperatives, and a few large dairy producers with a total of 1.2 million cows. The largest and most dynamic dairy market in Maghreb region, Morocco’s production averages 1,400 million liters of milk per year with dairy product consumption projected to reach about 140 kg by 2020.
After poultry, dairy constitutes a key driver of soybean meal demand in the market, the largest importer of U.S. soybean meal in the region. Morocco also imports all components of the U.S. soy complex (beans, meal, hulls and oil). Large dairy operations represent a constant demand of soybean meal in addition to the inclusion of soybean products into compound feed for other ruminants.
USSEC’s technical assistance continues to update knowledge on dairy management, nutrition, feeding resources, and value-added bypass protein sources. Such programs remain useful for Morocco’s dairy and feed industry sectors to achieve higher performance through the use of high quality ingredients such as U.S. soybean meal.