Alcoholic drinks in Morocco witnessed dynamic growth in 2024. While economic conditions limited household spending on premium alcoholic drinks, strong inbound tourism continued to support on-trade demand in restaurants, hotels, and bars. Many local consumers continued to face inflationary pressures and high living costs, driving the shift away from premium wines and spirits to more affordable alcoholic beverages, including economy beers and locally produced options. The elimination of import duties on alcoholic beverages and the stability of internal taxation has enabled greater availability of international brands, supporting category diversification and increased competition. Economic constraints have created a clear consumer divide between local and foreign consumers. Tourists and locals in upper-income groups continue to favour premium products, while most locals traded down to cheaper alternatives or reduced frequency of consumption. With easier market access due to trade policy changes, international players are introducing more varied offerings, including RTDs and niche spirits, catering to both tourist demand and a curious urban youth segment.
Beer was the largest category within alcoholic drinks overall in 2024, registering strong volume and outpacing both wine and spirits. Beer is generally the cheapest alcoholic entry point for Moroccans, especially compared to wine or spirits, which have seen large tax hikes. Wide availability in supermarkets, convenience stores, and horeca outlets also gives beer a strong competitive advantage. The recovery of tourism has driven on-trade beer consumption well above pre-pandemic levels in Morocco. Beach resorts, bars, and restaurants prioritise large stocks of lager for tourists and expats, as easy-drinking lagers are ideal for hot climates and casual social settings. Domestic brands like Casablanca and La Speciale Flag dominate due to price and familiarity.
Leading player Groupe des Brasseries du Maroc SA, owned by Castel Groupe, controls Morocco’s core beer supply with brands such as La Speciale Flag, Stork, and Casablanca, and breweries in Casablanca, Fes, Tangier, and Marrakesh. Groupe des Brasseries du Maroc SA owns vineyards and primary supply chains in Morocco and across Africa, keeping input costs low and enabling competitive pricing across beer, wine, and soft drinks. Following Heineken’s departure, Groupe des Brasseries du Maroc SA plans to rebrand and expand its domestic beer portfolio, boosting promotional investment, refreshing packaging, and targeting tourists and locals with labelling and value pricing. Groupe des Brasseries du Maroc SA is also scaling its Moroccan wine business, leveraging hypermarkets and the on-trade to support its mid-tier and premium domestic brands.
Carrefour is the sole hypermarket and supermarket chain offering alcoholic drinks alongside independent stores. Alcoholic drinks companies have been eager for this monopoly to end, as Carrefour imposes high margins reaching 45% of price, while other independent outlets apply low margins ranging from between 5-10%. This high margin has kept prices of alcoholic drinks high in Morocco, thus curtailing volume growth. To boost consumption and offer competitive prices to consumers, several alcoholic drinks players have invested in creating their own chained stores.
On-trade sales of alcoholic drinks continued to thrive in 2024. While the on-trade was heavily impacted by the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns in Morocco, volume sales saw a rapid rebound in 2022 and 2023 due mainly to the recovery of inbound tourism. The surge in tourist arrivals favours sales of premium alcoholic drinks, namely wines and spirits in restaurants and bars. Sales improved significantly at the end of 2022 with a record surge in tourist arrivals during the end of the year Christmas festivities and New Year’s Eve celebrations. As result, more players opted to import premium brands that cater to the preferences of foreign tourists in on-trade channels. However, the on trade was less frequented by price sensitive local consumers, who tended to make purchases in retailers given the price difference.
Alcoholic drinks in Morocco is set to witness dynamic growth over the forecast period. Rising tourism and urbanisation will expand the consumer base, especially in coastal cities and tourist hubs where alcohol consumption is more socially acceptable. Moderation in tax hikes will stabilise prices and provide more affordable choices, thus driving volume sales across the beer and wine segments.
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Alcoholic Drinks
Alcoholic drinks is the aggregation of beer, wine, spirits, cider/perry and RTDs.
See all of our definitionsThis report originates from Passport, our Alcoholic Drinks research and analysis database.
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