The slaughterhouse of the great Souk of Sidi Bennour, on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and the concessionaires of Agadir in this butcher shop, everyone calls it the "gourna", the butcher shops follow one another and look alike. Huge cattle carcasses are on display. Some are so large that they touch the ground and drag on the floor. Streams of blood flow from the butcher shops, and unbearable odours float in the air. A large part of these carcasses has no sanitary stamp. The animals were slaughtered in the butcher shop itself, in deplorable sanitary conditions and without the slightest veterinary control.

This market is well-known, and it is not unique. In total, it is considered that slaughtering provides a third of the meat market in Sidi Bennour. An enormous figure, when one knows the risks run by the citizen consumers. The private veterinarian is clear: "When you eat uncontrolled meat, you risk several diseases: tuberculosis, brucellosis, and a whole series of parasitic diseases". This does not bother the many customers of the "gourna" in the least. Among them are individuals, but also snack bars, restaurants, and even other butchers who come to stock up from the wholesale butchers, attracted by the competitive price. An anonymous customer: "There is no risk, if meat is sick, you see it right away". False, replies the veterinarian: "Some diseases, for example, are spotted by lymph nodes in the lungs. If you don't check the lung, even a veterinarian can be fooled".

But slaughtering is not the only danger. There is also what is called the rural sector. These are animals slaughtered legally in slaughterhouses in the region and which are illegally sold in Zemamra, Arbaa Aounat, or Béni Hlal. Very little slaughter tax is paid: 195 DH per bovine and 10 DH per ovine. Result: the meat is cheaper. Logical, since in Sidi Bennour, for example, there is not even a refrigerated room.

Over there, you swim in blood, while national standards provide for 400 litres of water per animal to ensure good hygiene. The animals, dead or alive, drag on the ground, in filthy puddles. The slaughter is brutal, since there is no way to mechanically immobilise the animal, which struggles.

Veterinary checks are summary and the meat is taken to the centre of the city in the open air, on three-wheelers, carts, the trunks of light cars, or even in old municipal trucks that have seen better days and reek of diesel. A trip to the centre of the city is enough to turn the most carnivorous among us into a vegetarian. Faced with this double competition - that of rural slaughterhouses and that of clandestine ones - the slaughterhouses are looking grim. Brand new, they only operate at 20% of their capacity.

A Doukkali breeder and customer of the Sidi Bennour slaughterhouse and its region is clear: "As long as meat enters the Souk illegally and as long as we continue to tolerate clandestine sectors, we condemn modern slaughterhouses to operate at under-capacity, to the detriment of the consumer". The wholesalers themselves are deserting their workplace, which is too expensive. They complain about not having been consulted before the project. These modern slaughterhouses, however, have every reason to charge high prices for their services. Veterinary control, automated cold rooms, and meat marking... the conditions there are much better. But we are in a market of destitute consumers for whom price remains the only criterion. A market where quality and hygiene have never been considered important.

The consumer does not impose any standard on their merchant. On the contrary, many are those who ask their butcher for meat from the "Souks". It has the reputation of being better, because it is fresher. It is sold on the day of its slaughter. In other words, it is more beautiful, pinker. Yet, specialists know that good meat is meat that has spent several days in the fridge. The Doukkali breeder: "Meat must spend time in a cold room to become more tender. This is what is called ageing".

The project to modernise the red meat sector was launched in the Doukkala region on the occasion of the 2nd edition of the National Fair for Slaughter Animals in Sidi Bennour. A programme contract for the 2009-2014 period was signed between the government and the Interprofessional Federation of Red Meats aimed at improving the production and valorisation of red meats. Planned for this purpose were a cattle feed manufacturing unit and a modern slaughterhouse.