Insight
How big is the Morocco tea trade?
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 3,043.4 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.
Who regulates tea imports into Morocco?
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.
ONSSA has since moved to tighten limits on tea specifically, following domestic concern about pesticide residues in tea sold in Morocco, and has notified the World Trade Organization of revised maximum residue limits covering tea imported for the domestic market and for re-export alike.
The practical effect for exporters is that a lot compliant with Chinese national limits is not automatically compliant with Moroccan ones. Testing has to be specified against the destination standard.
Why is a tighter residue regime an opportunity?
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 4,024.6 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.
What documents does a Morocco tea shipment need?
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.
| Document | Issued by | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial invoice and packing list | Exporter | Grade code and suffix must match the contract |
| Bill of lading | Carrier | Casablanca is the principal port of entry |
| Certificate of origin | Chamber of commerce / customs | Determines preferential duty treatment |
| Phytosanitary certificate | Exporting country plant protection authority | Confirm whether required for this tea shipment |
| Health certificate | Exporting country competent authority | Confirm applicable food-safety evidence with the importer |
| Pesticide residue test report | Accredited laboratory | Test against the Moroccan limit, not only the Chinese one |
| Certificate of analysis | Exporter or accredited laboratory | Moisture ≤ 7.0%, ash, broken and fannings |
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.