Pork Production - Growth Industry in Morocco

AUSTRALIA - Although pork consumption is a religious taboo in Morocco, pig farming is booming in the Muslim country as a result of its booming tourism trade.
calendar icon 1 April 2008
clock icon 2 minute read

Many Moroccan farmers are now considering pigs are their most viable enterprise. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, pig production is thriving in the country. "If there's tourism, it would be better to have pigs," said Samouk, who raises 250 porkers at his farm 28 kilometres (17 miles) from the seaside town of Agadir.

His business was battered by a wave of bird flu, and so he started a pig operation 20 years ago in partnership with an elderly Frenchman.

Today, Samouk hopes to double his production within three years to help meet the demands of some 10 million tourists that are expected to visit Morocco in 2010. The number of visitors is increasing year on year the from 7.5 million who came to the north African country in 2007.

"I'm a practising Muslim. I don't eat pork and I don't drink alcohol but it's just a breeding operation like any other and no imam has ever reprimanded me for it," he said of raising pigs -- whose consumption is prohibited in both Islam and Judaism.

View the Sydney Morning Herald story by clicking here.
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