Morocco’s sea conceals potential for $2 billion and 75,000 jobs
Marine aquaculture could attract nearly $2 billion in private investment to Morocco and generate around 75,000 jobs. The World Bank estimates that the potential already exists, but remains constrained by permits and several regulatory constraints.
In its Country Private Sector Diagnostic 2026, the World Bank estimates the medium-term potential of Moroccan aquaculture at $1.96 billion in private investment. It estimates potential job creation at 20,848 direct jobs and 54,204 indirect jobs, or just over 75,000 in total.
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These jobs would be distributed among farming, processing, logistics, feed production and the various services needed to develop the sector.
24,000 hectares already identified
The calculation is based on approximately 24,000 hectares of coastal and offshore areas already preselected by the National Agency for the Development of Aquaculture (ANDA), but still largely underexploited. The central scenario assumes that 75% of these areas obtain their permits and become operational, with farms operating on average at 50% of their authorized capacity.
The World Bank therefore does not present these $2 billion and 75,000 jobs as guaranteed. Their realization depends in particular on speeding up permitting procedures, better access to coastal land and the removal of certain constraints that increase production costs.
The potential could even be much higher under a maximum scenario. If all the preselected areas were fully exploited, investment could exceed $5.2 billion and support more than 55,000 direct jobs and around 144,000 indirect jobs. But the World Bank uses the much more cautious $1.96 billion and approximately 75,000 jobs as its reference scenario.
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For Morocco, the challenge is therefore less about finding new areas at sea than about successfully putting those that have already been identified into operation.
