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His Majesty King Mohammed VI inaugurated on March 17, 2017, the Solidarity Market of L'Oasis in Casablanca, a new initiative carried out by the Foundation to support the marketing of Moroccan cooperatives’ products.

Cooperatives, rural women and Moroccan consumers have all benefited from the positive impact generated by this four-year-old unprecedented experiment. Indeed, the creation of a perennial circuit for the fair marketing of the cooperatives' products, the improvement of the socio-economic situation of the cooperatives' members and the participation in the valorization of local productions are the ambitious socio-economic objectives that motivated the setting up of this solidarity sales space.

It took only four years of activity for L'Oasis Solidarity Market to show encouraging results: 356 cooperatives (159 local products’ cooperatives, 122 agricultural cooperatives and 75 cosmetics cooperatives) and 8872 products are now listed, the volume of cumulative sales has exceeded four million items and traffic has reached the two million mark. Moroccan consumers, fond of local products, were overwhelmed by the richness and diversity of the product offer from all regions of Morocco, they also appreciated the accessibility in store and the ease of purchase. Choosing the cooperatives and selecting the products is done rigorously. In order to meet the needs of the market and to guarantee the quality of the products, precise evaluation criteria have been adopted (ONSSA* authorization-accreditation for local products, regional representativeness, packaging conformity, price level...).

The market has exceeded the initial forecasts in terms of financial situation and has reached autonomy in its second year of activity. It has recorded a cumulative turnover of more than 150 million dirhams, between 2017 and 2021. Regarding the payment of sales revenue, a direct and bi-monthly system has been established in this sense to allow cooperatives to easily access their income.

Thanks to the partnership between the Foundation and the Crédit Agricole du Maroc, the 2018-2019 cooperatives’ technical upgrading program has enabled 166 local products’ cooperatives to obtain ONSSA authorization-accreditation and access to the Solidarity Market distribution circuit. In the continuity of this program, a new support system, broader and sustainable, is established to enhance the activities of cooperatives. In its first phase of implementation, planned for the period 2020 - 2021, nearly 200 cooperatives will benefit. Those whose activities are related to local products will be directly referenced at L’Oasis Solidarity Market as well as the next solidarity markets.

In that respect, based on the experience of L’Oasis in Casablanca, the Foundation has launched a feasibility study for the duplication of the Solidarity Market in the cities of Marrakech, Tangier and Rabat. The future launch of these sites will allow to extend the benefits to new cooperatives operating on the national territory.

*ONSSA: The National Food Safety Authority