Morocco sheep meat prices hit record highs as herders hold back ewe lambs to rebuild flocks
Sheep meat prices on the Moroccan market have reached historic highs because producers are retaining up to 60-70% of their ewe lambs to rebuild flocks after the 2020-2023 drought. A 34% collapse in the national cattle herd, from 3.2 to 2.1 million head, is pushing butchers toward sheep meat, while feed accounts for 70-80% of the cost of producing an animal.
Prices for sheep meat on the Moroccan market have reached historic highs, and the main driver is a deliberate decision by producers to keep animals away from the slaughterhouse. Le Site Info and Le360, both citing Saïd Chatibi, president of the National Sheep and Goat Association (ANOC), identify three converging factors: the strategic retention of females, the historic collapse of the national cattle herd, and imported inflation in production costs. Le360 notes that the analysis was published by the daily Les Inspirations Eco on 15 September.
Restocking after the drought years
Between 2020 and 2023, persistent drought, scarce pasture and weak farmgate prices forced Moroccan herders to destock. To keep their farms solvent, they sold off a large part of their productive animals. That trend has now reversed. Rainfall recorded in 2025, followed by a good 2026 crop season, restored pasture and revived domestic forage production. Encouraged by highly attractive liveweight prices and supported by public aid deployed in 2025, producers are rebuilding their breeding base. Females are being held back for reproduction, which mechanically removes a large share of potential supply from commercial channels and keeps retail prices elevated, weighing on household purchasing power.
The bottleneck is in ewe lambs, not breeding ewes
ANOC stresses that the tension does not stem from the slaughter of breeding ewes. Wholesale prices for those animals now range between 3,500 and 4,500 dirhams a head, a level at which the economics no longer work for a butcher who would obtain only 18 to 20 kg of standard-quality meat. The real pressure point is ewe lambs of six to nine months.
- In the conventional management of a 200-head flock, a producer keeps 30% to 40% of young females for renewal.
- The remaining 60% to 70% normally go to slaughter to generate working cash flow.
- That ratio has now been inverted, with herders retaining up to 60% or even 70% of their ewe lambs.
Producers are therefore accepting an immediate loss of income in a bet on future profitability. The volumes usually destined for butchers are drying up, and the market is left under acute pressure.
The cattle collapse spills over into sheep
This voluntary tightening of sheep supply collides with a deeper structural crisis in the cattle sector. The red meat market in Morocco functions as a system of communicating vessels. The agricultural census of September 2025 revealed an unprecedented contraction of the national cattle herd, down 34% from 3.2 to 2.1 million head in a very short period. “Cattle supplied 80% of the meat consumed in Moroccan butcher shops. We have lost a third of that 80%,” Chatibi said. Despite import facilities granted by the state for beef, covering both live animals and carcasses, wholesalers and butchers are turning massively to sheep meat. That substitution demand hits an ovine supply already thinned by retention, upending traditional consumption patterns.
Feed and logistics set the cost floor
The price surge is not explained by supply and demand alone. The cost structure of production has expanded under international pressure. Livestock feed, heavily dependent on imported concentrates such as maize, soybean meal and barley, is exposed to global inflation. According to ANOC data, feed represents 70% to 80% of the cost of producing a sheep. Logistics and transport costs have risen in step with hydrocarbon prices, and the multiplication of intermediaries in the value chain stacks additional margins before the meat reaches the final consumer.
ANOC argues that the current price level, however painful for consumers, is the condition for restoring a domestic supply base. The association maintains that a purely quantitative increase in animal numbers will not resolve recurring climate vulnerability. The sector's future, it says, depends on improving the numerical productivity of flocks, modernising husbandry practices and increasing support for local breeds able to withstand future climate shocks, with rigorous state backing.
