The symbolism of milk in Morocco
In 1974, I accompanied a couple of Swiss-German friends who came for the first time in Morocco. We did a stop, on the occasion of this tour, for a few days with an aunt in a hamlet near Ouazzane. She knew we were coming and had time to milk a cow and handed a glass of the drink to each one they drank graciously. I so had to explain the symbolic significance of that gesture to our tradition. Indeed, the consumption of milk in Switzerland is very commonplace. It is a substitute for water for cooking, it is added to chocolate, coffee, tea is infused with and also they quench their thirst with milk that often is cheaper than commercial water. While at the time of Ramadan, during the long drought of the eighties, the good customers of grocer’s shop had to wrap the precious drink in paper to hide it from the view of many other unlucky consumers. But businessmen seek to invest in the products demanded by the market, what explains how now everyone can buy milk at will, freely and no reason to hiding the drink. But one may wonder what happens to small producers cooperatives in all this. That is the subject of this article.
Manufacturers also cheat
Between 1994 and 1999, I executed hundreds of judicial expertises at the request of courts of the Kingdom, particularly on industries of the food sector of Casablanca. Part of that work was devoted to expertises on flour (a powerful lobby and on which I shall have occasion to return later in another text) and milk, present article’s purpose. Summoned by registered mail to give me their view on fraud charges against one of the larger units of production of pasteurized and shelf stable milk; the production manager sends me a copy of list of the control of “work in process” of milk in a cardboard box which shows that the fat content was far less than the regulatory requirements. The same afternoon I was in the company in question with the box in hand. After a brief discussion with the director of human resources, we were joined by the production manager, a young engineer who had seen no harm to transmitting the mentioned list to a judicial expert. I was angry against these people because in my hands there was evidence that they put on sale batches of fresh pasteurized milk with fat content far below (up to 50% less) the regulatory requirement. I was put in the situation as they say in English: “Damned if you do, and damned if you don’t”. Fraud detected could be the starting point of a scandal of major proportions, particularly for women to whom the doctor may recommend cow’s milk after weaning their babies at six months. On the other hand, what assurances these people can give of their willingness to stop their fraud? Then, someone who attended the meeting a little heated took me aside and told me, in substance: “For these people, you weigh a lot less heavy than a traffic cop that can lead one of their trucks with cargo impounded for a broken taillight. You, you will submit your report to a magistrate to whom (the chances exist) they regularly deliver the full range of their dairy products and derivatives gracefully”. Upon reflection, I dictated to them a long note1 detailing how the quality control work was carried out within their unit2 hoping this will deter them to start again their fraudulent practices. I must say that the temptation must have been very strong for these people because the money earned in defiance of the law and on the back of the consumer in a year were undoubtedly significant at the national level, something that would be made impossible without the complacency of the Fraud Control Services. With the same reasoning, the latter have had to, from time to time, raise the stakes with their findings of irregularities for, supposedly, a more important piece of cake. But that was never to jeopardize a “good agreement” between both parties.
The industrial’s coercion tactics
I was asked recently to define an approach to upgrade cooperatives in the region of Casablanca that deliver raw milk to large processing units. As part of my preparation for this task, I gathered some information on milk circuit from small producer to cooperatives and to industry. I also read some reports of trainees on the subject. In milk, you may find microorganisms which signal an insufficient hygiene work. The failure can be fixed with educating of people to how to meet hygiene standards with help of some posters and reminders from time to time. The impact on the final consumer is negligible because sterilization schedules are there to destroy these pathogens. Milk may be diluted with water, which can be seen easily. This is a low-end fraud recurrent that normally a cooperative can find where it comes from and takes measures to stop and exclude, eventually, the recalcitrant member. Milk can stay more than enough at room temperature which also can be inferred, for example, from microbiological profile of the product. Methods more efficients exist to determine these parameters, and others, in times shorter and shorter. But when we talk with leaders of cooperatives, all they know is that they deliver a quantity of the product and then receive a sum of money that corresponds, they are told, to quality of their milk upon which the buyer is sole judge. Everything happens orally and nothing in writing. In fact, the collection of such information takes me to some past experiences. Thus, in research, the reviewer is wary whenever he finds before him a convoluted statistical formula because it can be an excuse to hide any failure. In this respect, while reviewing some reports of students mentioned above, I was struck by the number of parameters, sometimes esoteric, which these companies rely on to determine the milk price of a given cooperative. This scheme recalls the perception that one experiences precisely with the convoluted statistical formulas mentioned before. It was may be simpler, with regard of purchasing of cow’s milk whose parameters are well defined and standardized in official monographs, to inform suppliers, i.e. cooperatives, on threshold criteria to qualify for a pre-determined price. At the same time, possibly agree on costs of analysis of parameters used to qualify milk for a defined quality grade. The merit of such an approach is as to reassure everyone and show that manufacturer’s work with cooperatives is transparent. But may be that transparency causes harm somewhere to profits which are more confident with opaque rules and the ladles procedures.
What about the regulatory authority
In the text above, we have omitted an important player who is the supervisory authority. Indeed, ONSSA (Office National de Sécurité Sanitaire des produits Alimentaires) does not seem any helpful for milk cooperatives that are struggling to survive. Indeed, it takes more effort than a name change from «Fraud Control Services» to “ONSSA” to make a distinction between the work of officials before and today. It is possible that among the current makers ONSSA, some still dream of sunny days spent under the (now deleted) old repressive 13-83 Act. But there are also other officials who want to do their work normally as required by the new regulations because they do not have another memory. The state would do well to consolidate the powers of these to help better guide efforts ONSSA the benefit of cooperatives. And there is even better. If I was manager of a cooperative, I would sought to enter in association with others to form a network, reach a critical size and make our own industrial production of milk and dairy products by ourselves. After all, method of “freeze-drying” dates back to the thirties of the last century and the American soldiers were already receiving milk powder during the Second World War. With respect to pasteurization and / or sterilization techniques, they are more than centenarians; and all of these technologies are actually widely available via the Internet or implemented by hardware vendors. In this respect, Australia, which had no vine or olive on its territory, is now among the most active exporters of these commodities. With regard to export, all West Africa is waiting to enjoy on Moroccan performance.
1: The text of this letter, addressed to me as an expert, signed by the plant manager and duly dated and sealed, is in my book: « Les Rouages de la Répression des Fraudes », édition 2005 (Sochepress). In this respect, I confirm that as expert witness, I always prohibited myself of receiving any gift and / or money or else if the work is asked for by the Court; except for the meager fees awarded by the tribunal that go along with some respect.
2: This is to say: How the Quality/Control work must be done from that moment.
