Insight
¿Qué tan grande es el comercio del té en Marruecos?
Morocco imported 91,000 tonnes of Chinese tea in 2025, up 13,4%, worth USD 280 million, up 14,7%. That is the single largest destination for Chinese tea. 99,85% of it was green tea — mostly gunpowder and Chunmee grades, brewed with sugar and mint in the daily atay ritual. The average price was USD 3043,4 per tonne.
That concentration has a consequence: Morocco took more than a fifth of China's tea export volume in 2025, so its regulatory decisions reach the whole gunpowder and Chunmee supply chain.
¿Quién regula las importaciones de té a Marruecos?
ONSSA — the Office National de Sécurité Sanitaire des Produits Alimentaires — is Morocco's food safety authority and the body that sets and enforces pesticide maximum residue limits on imported tea. Order 156-14, published in Bulletin Officiel 6322bis on 1 January 2015, established the MRL framework. Product found non-conforming at control is refused access to the national market.
Desde entonces, ONSSA ha decidido reforzar los límites específicos del té, tras la preocupación interna por los residuos de pesticidas en el té vendido en Marruecos, y ha notificado a la Organización Mundial del Comercio los límites máximos revisados de residuos que abarcan el té importado para el mercado interno y para su reexportación.
El efecto práctico para los exportadores es que un lote que cumpla con los límites nacionales chinos no cumple automáticamente con los marroquíes.
¿Por qué un régimen más estricto de residuos es una oportunidad?
A tighter residue regime re-sorts the supplier field. When Morocco tightens residue limits, tea already produced to EU or organic standards — which is typically destined elsewhere — becomes eligible and competitive in Morocco, while suppliers who cannot document residue performance lose access to the largest single market in the trade. Compliance stops being a cost line and becomes a qualification.
Price data alone cannot show what compliance is worth: Senegal paid USD 4024,6 per tonne in 2025 against Morocco's USD 3,043.4, but both are averages that mix grade, packing and contract terms. What is certain is that a lot without residue evidence for the destination cannot be sold into it at any price.
¿Qué documentos necesita un envío de té en Marruecos?
The shipment file should be agreed with the Moroccan importer and customs broker for the actual product: invoice, packing list, transport document, origin evidence and any applicable plant-health, food-safety and laboratory documents. Check the current ONSSA control requirements before shipping. Food labels for sale in Morocco need the mandatory information in Arabic; another language may be added, but French is not a universal second-language requirement.
| Documento | Emitido por | Nota |
|---|---|---|
| factura comercial y lista de embalaje | Exportador | El código de grado y el sufijo deberán coincidir con el contrato |
| Conocimiento de embarque | Transportista | Casablanca es el principal puerto de entrada |
| Certificado de origen | Cámara de Comercio / Aduanas | Determina el régimen preferencial de derechos |
| Certificado fitosanitario | Autoridad de protección de los vegetales del país exportador | Confirm whether required for this tea shipment |
| Certificado de salud | Autoridad competente del país exportador | Confirm applicable food-safety evidence with the importer |
| Informe de ensayo de residuos de plaguicidas | Laboratorio acreditado | Prueba contra el límite marroquí, no sólo el chino |
| Certificado de análisis | Laboratorio exportador o acreditado | Humedad ≤ 7,0%, cenizas, roturas y ventilaciones |
Who does what when tea is imported from China into Morocco?
The Moroccan importer is the party ONSSA and customs deal with: it lodges the import, presents the goods and documents for sanitary control and answers for the Arabic label. The exporter supplies the goods to the agreed specification with the invoice, packing list, transport document, origin evidence and the test reports the contract names. The residue standard is Morocco's, so testing is specified against the Moroccan limit before shipment.
Agree in the contract who arranges each document and test, and send draft documents to the importer for checking before loading. A document the importer cannot use at the border is the slowest problem to fix once the container has sailed.