Women farmers resisting agribusinesses in Morocco

La Via Campesina issued a communiqué in October 2023 following the demonstration led by the National Federation of the Agricultural Sector (FNSA-UMT), its member in Morocco, denouncing the Moroccan regime for approving investments worth millions. These investments to dozens of companies, allowed loans to Moroccan landowners and granted public subsidies to “support agricultural production for export in the service of foreign markets”. The agreement between Morocco and the European Union (recently annulled by the courts) has played a key role in this whole scheme. In this context, the Spanish agri-food industry is becoming increasingly strong in the North African country, where almost 400 companies are based. Its objective is to reduce costs and its products at very low prices to Europe.
The trade union organization also denounced the harm caused by this agricultural policy to small farmers and, in particular, to women farmers and agricultural workers. Women constitute the majority of the people working in the agricultural sector and also suffer the worst working conditions: temporary jobs with no social security coverage, wage discrimination and occupational accidents.
The Spanish agri-food industry is becoming increasingly strong in the North African country, where almost 400 companies are established.
Karima El Fouari was born in the municipality of Ouezzane in northern Morocco, a mountainous area of the Rif with traditional subsistence and rain-fed agriculture. The only source of irrigation is rain. She is a farmer, but a few years ago she migrated to the south of the country, to Agadir, to work in the citrus sector and be able to help her family economically. There, she is a member of the FNSA, in charge of coordinating the non-mixed Women’s Movement department, which promotes activities to raise awareness of the labor rights of Moroccan peasant women.
The price of exporting food to Europe
The working conditions to which thousands of peasant women, the main labor force of these companies, are exposed are evidence of the absence of fundamental rights in the Moroccan kingdom. The complicity of local employers with their European partners contributes to this lack of protection. “Women are considered inferior, there is enormous discrimination in wages, they are not allowed to take on tasks of responsibility and are prevented from joining the union,” explains Karima El Fouri. In her day-to-day work, she tries to mediate with employers and female workers to improve the situation in which they find themselves, since, in addition to suffering from precariousness, they also lack social and legal protection.
Living in peripheral areas and far from their workplaces, they have to travel too long and unsafe distances to reach them: “They are put in vans where they travel standing up and without any kind of security. They suffer numerous accidents. Depending on the region, it can take them up to an hour to get there. In addition, they have to take long, unsafe roads to reach the pick-up point. In the meantime, they are victims of robbery and sometimes rape”.
The pressures on women farmworkers in Morocco due to the agreement with Europe for the export of products are overwhelming: “I have been fighting for three years and it seemed like I was fighting a war. We have had strong conflicts with the big Moroccan landowners that we have had to take to court. It is very exhausting. We say that they are not our products because they are soaked with the tears of the peasant women workers,” Karima stresses.
Despite the successive years of drought that Morocco is experiencing, the depletion of its water resources is increasing.
Karima El Fouari denounces how some companies based in the monarchical state carry out a strategy of production with cheap labor to multiply their profits: “They work in a given area exploiting women workers without respecting the agrarian legislation in force. When these women claim their rights, they close their businesses and move to other areas to hire new ones.”
Water-demanding crops in the hands of agribusinesses
While the conditions of the peasantry are becoming more and more precarious and uncertain, the depletion of water resources in the country is increasing, despite the successive years of drought that Morocco is going through.
Zohra Koubia, president of the Al Hoceima Women’s Forum Association, Forum des Femmes Au Rif, in a recent speech at the presentation of the latest issue of the magazine Food Sovereignty, recalled that most of the agricultural policies of the Moroccan kingdom are aimed at export. “This has affected small peasant families, of whom depended on their crops for their livelihood. Morocco is allowing foreign companies, including several Israeli ones, to occupy land all over the country.”
Numerous Spanish and Israeli companies are bidding for agricultural projects in Morocco in order to minimize costs and gain a foothold in the international export market. On December 22, 2020, under U.S. auspices, Morocco and Israel signed, despite the situation of occupation suffered by Palestine, the agreement for the normalization of relations between both countries. Immediately afterwards, closer ties began to be forged with Israeli companies in the agricultural, energy, military and communications sectors. One example is Netafim, a company specializing in precision irrigation, which set up its factory in Kenitra, in northern Morocco.
Morocco began to strengthen ties with Israeli companies in the agricultural, energy, military and communications sectors.
Mehadrin, the Israeli company leader in the production and export of citrus and avocados, settled a few months ago in the country, allowing it to lease 1,235 hectares for the production and export of this tropical fruit at low cost. For its part, the Malaga company AlcoAxarquia, not satisfied with the production it has in its territory, decided to set up and market avocados grown in Morocco. It points out on its website that this country is among the 10 countries with the highest production of the so-called green gold.
According to sources consulted from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of the Spanish government, the area planted with avocado in Morocco is around 7,000 hectares. The same document questions whether this type of plantation is suitable for the climatic conditions of the region, given the scarcity of water: “according to specialists, the trees are irrigated twice a day, for half an hour to an hour per hectare, depending on the type of soil (drained or not). Given that Morocco is a country that suffers from water stress, the question that arises is whether it is relevant to continue to develop this crop or not”.

In response to this landing of agribusiness, several social and trade union organizations in the country denounce the depletion of water and the abusive conditions suffered by the peasants and the subsidies obtained by the big businessmen allied with foreign companies based in Morocco.
Achievements of the peasants’ struggle and international alliances
Last October, the FNSA-UMT demanded a democratic and popular agrarian reform in favor of Food Sovereignty and justice for farmers. At the same time, it denounced the influence of unjust international agreements and the domination of multinationals in the region.
Zohra Koubia warned of the danger of the disappearance of local seeds due to the increased commercialization of hybrid seeds. In El Rif, where she lives, she assures us that “there are practically no more seeds adapted to the climate, to the available water and to our soil”. The arrival of multinationals and the grabbing of large areas of land, Zohra reminded us in her speech, go hand in hand with the loss of the Amazigh and Arab culture of crops, traditional knowledge and communal management of the land, which “is a danger to the food sovereignty of our peoples”.
Despite the great challenges facing the countryside in her country, Karima is grateful for the efforts made by the union to improve conditions for many women workers: the recognition and dignification of peasant work and access to social security for women members of the organization has improved their conditions, and this has also been thanks to the support of international associations. “In my workplace, most of what we produce is exported. As mediators, we try to facilitate the marketing of small entrepreneurs so that it reaches the European customer without the Moroccan middleman, who imposes precarious conditions on women farmers. In this sense, we have agreements with European organizations adhered to La Via Campesina that try to ensure that our rights are fulfilled”.
Unfortunately, however, in areas where there are no unions, women farmers do not enjoy any rights. One of the problems to which Karima alludes is subcontracting by third-party companies: “This practice is spreading in Morocco. Women workers in this situation do not have the right to join any trade union organization. Those who retire are replaced by the subcontracted ones and many of them decide to join the strawberry picking campaigns in Huelva”, she points out.
Social isolation, the lack of labor rights for women workers and the high illiteracy rate among women in rural areas (over 70%) increase the risk of impoverishment in Morocco. Karima regrets that, in the face of this situation, there is not more solidarity among the country’s trade union and social organizations. But she is proud to say that “we are the first union to bring together women farm workers in Morocco. Thanks to the accompaniment and union awareness-raising work, we have women who have reached a higher level of training. This has been possible because we have had the support of La Via Campesina trade union organizations, such as those in Spain, for example, with the organization of training sessions for women workers in our region. This has helped us a lot in claiming our rights, negotiating and learning how to resolve conflicts.
Karima’s energy is tireless, despite the many responsibilities she assumes as coordinator of the Women’s Movement. For her, support and training for women farmers, in addition to raising awareness of union work, is fundamental to identifying problems and seeking solutions. “There is still a long way to go. The rights achieved are not enough, because they do not reach everyone. In those work areas where the union is present, they do have a minimum of coverage, but the rest cannot enjoy the benefits and rights we offer because they are not affiliated.”
It is not an easy task considering the persecution and discrimination women suffer from the big businessmen and owners of the farms where they work.
Article by Amal El Mohammadiane Tarbift, originally published in Revista Soberanía Alimentaria.