Morocco-Italy bilateral trade nears €5 billion threshold

RABAT – Bilateral trade between Morocco and Italy reached €4.752 billion in 2025, according to official data from the Economic Observatory of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI).

With Italian exports to the North African Kingdom standing at nearly €3 billion, Morocco has firmly established itself as one of Italy’s core export destinations across the African continent.

This performance reflects a steadily deepening commercial alliance, underpinned by Italian firms prioritizing Morocco both as a high-value domestic consumer market and as a strategic manufacturing and logistical springboard into wider African markets.

A Leading Trade Partner on the African Continent

Italian exports to Morocco reached €2.995 billion in 2025, accounting for 14.8% of all Italian goods sold across Africa. This performance places the Kingdom as Italy’s third-largest African customer, behind only Tunisia and Algeria, and ahead of regional economies including Egypt, Libya, and South Africa.

Trade flows also remained robust in the opposite direction. Italian imports from Morocco totaled €1.757 billion in 2025, representing 5.1% of Italy’s total procurement from African suppliers. Morocco ranked as Italy’s sixth-largest supplier on the continent, behind Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, and South Africa. The resulting trade balance yielded a €1.238 billion surplus in Italy’s favour.

Strategic Bets on Industry, Energy, and Infrastructure

Beyond pure commodity and goods exchange, the bilateral relationship is anchored by an expanding industrial footprint.

Italy’s Ambassador to Rabat, Pasquale Salzano, emphasized the sustained stability of Morocco’s investment climate, pointing to sectors such as energy, transport, civil infrastructure, logistics, and mechanical engineering as high-growth areas for bilateral ventures.

Industrial machinery represents a core component of this economic relationship, with Morocco standing as Italy’s second-largest supplier of machinery.

Across the continent, Italian corporate presence continues to expand. By late 2023, more than 1,600 Italian enterprises were operating in Africa, employing over 90,000 workers and generating a combined turnover of €25.1 billion. Italian foreign direct investment stock in Africa reached €30.835 billion by the end of 2025.

Long-Term Growth Catalyzed by the 2030 World Cup

Future economic cooperation is set to accelerate ahead of the 2030 FIFA World Cup, which Morocco will co-host alongside Spain and Portugal. The scale of required public and private works provides extensive avenues for Italian companies specialized in stadium design, urban mobility, mass transit, logistical hubs, and urban regeneration.

This bilateral expansion aligns with broader Italian trade momentum across Africa: during the first half of 2026, total Italian trade with Africa rose 10% year-on-year to €30.391 billion, with Italian exports growing 17% to €11.338 billion and imports expanding 6.3% to €19.053 billion.