The administrations and professionals of France and Morocco's fruit and vegetable sectors have agreed to the creation of a French-Moroccan contact group during the first meeting of the French-Moroccan mixed committee, which took place on 11 February with the presence of the French Minister of Agriculture, Agro-food and Forests, Stéphane Le Foll, and its Moroccan counterpart, Aziz Akhannouch. According to the French Ministry of Agriculture, the contact group will be devoted to the promotion of dialogue between professionals.
The mixed committee and the creation of the group have taken place within the framework of a series of meetings held this week in Paris. On 10 February, two agreements were signed between France and Morocco; one dealing with cooperation between sanitary authorities and the other focusing on cooperation in the field of agricultural training, denominated "Operation 250".
A business meeting also took place between 70 French and 30 Moroccan companies, which has shown "the mutual interest in the development of the business relations between France and Morocco," according to the press statement issued by the French Ministry of Agriculture.
For FEPEX, the creation of the French-Moroccan contact group demonstrates Morocco's interest in solidifying its relations with the main fruit and vegetable producers in the EU. It is worth noting that Spain and Morocco already formed a Spanish-Moroccan mixed committee in December 2012.