SIAM 2026 Meknès: The Complete Guide to Morocco's International Agricultural Show
- Agrilinkage
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SIAM Morocco 2026: Meknès Agriculture Show Guide
By the AgriLinkage Editorial Team | February 7, 2026
2026 Quick Facts
📅 Dates: April 20–26, 2026 (7 days)
⏰ Hours: Professional days (April 20–22): 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM Public days (April 23–26): 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM
🎫 Tickets: ~40 MAD adults | ~10 MAD children (based on previous editions – confirm at epay.salon-agriculture.ma) Book online to skip queues.
🚗 Getting There: 60 km from Fès (1 hr by car or taxi) | 130 km from Rabat via A2 highway Train: ONCF connects Meknès to all major cities. Taxis from the station to the venue cost around 20–30 MAD. Air: Fès-Saïss Airport (60 km) | Casablanca Mohammed V International Airport (240 km)
👥 Expected Visitors: 1,000,000+
🏢 Exhibitors: ~1,500 from 70+ countries
📐 Exhibition Space: 200,000 m² total (100,000 m² covered)
🎯 2026 Theme: "Durabilité de la production animale et souveraineté alimentaire" (Sustainability of Animal Production and Food Sovereignty)
🌍 Guest Country: Portugal
💼 Professional Access: First three days (April 20–22) require professional credentials
👑 Royal Patronage: Held under the High Patronage of HM King Mohammed VI
Morocco launched SIAM in 2006 on Royal initiative. Eighteen years later, it has become the largest agricultural show on the African continent, drawing over a million visitors and 1,500 exhibitors from more than 70 countries each April in Meknès.
The 18th edition runs April 20–26, 2026, under the theme "Durabilité de la production animale et souveraineté alimentaire," which translates to sustainability of animal production and food sovereignty. Those aren't buzzwords. They directly address the two most pressing issues facing Moroccan agriculture right now: how to keep livestock farming viable as water and climate conditions worsen, and how to reduce the country's dependence on imported food.
Why Meknès
The choice of host city is no accident. Meknès sits at the center of the Saïss Plain, one of Morocco's most productive agricultural regions, where wheat, olives, grapes, and livestock have been farmed for centuries. The venue itself, the École d'Horticulture at Jnan Ben Halima, is where Morocco trains its agronomists. Hosting a show about the future of farming on the grounds of an agricultural school makes a point.
The venue covers 200,000 square meters, half of that under cover, spread across 12 thematic sections. It's large enough to feel like a city in itself for the week.
What This Year Is About
Agriculture represents between 12 and 14% of Morocco's GDP and employs between a third and 40% of the country's active workforce, a figure that shifts year to year depending on rainfall and mechanization trends. That makes the challenges it faces everyone's problem.
Morocco's water situation is serious. Per capita renewable water resources sit below the water scarcity threshold, and climate projections point to a 25% decrease in available irrigation water by 2050. At the same time, global supply chain disruptions over the last few years exposed how exposed Morocco is when it relies on imports for basic food products.
The Generation Green strategy (2020–2030), launched by King Mohammed VI, responds to both issues: double agricultural GDP, create 350,000 new jobs, increase exports, and build more resilience into the system.
SIAM 2026 is where that strategy meets reality. Not in presentations. In actual farmers, actual equipment, actual cooperative models that are working and ones that aren't.
Portugal as Guest Country
Portugal is the guest of honor at SIAM 2026, following France in 2025. The two countries share more than geography. Both deal with Mediterranean climates, increasing drought pressure, and agriculture that needs to produce more with less water.
Portugal brings real expertise: olive oil production, wine viticulture under heat stress, dairy efficiency, cork oak management, and precision irrigation systems developed in the Alentejo region. These aren't technologies that need heavy adaptation to work in Morocco. Many of them were built for the same problem.
The Portuguese pavilion will host B2B meetings, product showcases, and bilateral conferences throughout the week. For buyers sourcing from or selling into Portugal, and for Moroccan producers interested in what's working climatically, this is a worthwhile stop.
The 12 Exhibition Poles
SIAM is organized into 12 thematic sections. Here's what each one actually contains:
Regional Pavilions: Morocco's 12 regions each present their agricultural specialties. Gharb for cereals and sugarcane. Souss-Massa for citrus and tomatoes. Drâa-Tafilalet for dates. Atlas regions for livestock and tree crops. These pavilions are where you find the country's agricultural diversity in one place, and often where you can buy directly from producers or cooperatives.
Livestock and Animal Production: Cattle, sheep, goats, camels, poultry, rabbits. Breed associations showcase genetic work. Equipment suppliers demonstrate feeding systems and housing. Livestock competitions run throughout the week, with judges evaluating conformation, movement, breed characteristics, and productivity indicators. This is the section most directly linked to this year's theme.
Agricultural Machinery: Tractors, precision planting equipment, drones, irrigation systems, and specialized machines for olives and dates. Manufacturers run live demonstrations. This is a genuine buying environment, not just display.
Agri-Digital: Farm management software, satellite crop monitoring, weather and decision support tools, traceability systems. Morocco invested heavily in agricultural digitalization under Generation Green, and this section reflects it. A mix of Moroccan start-ups and international companies.
Agro-Industry: Food processing, packaging, cold chain, quality control, value-added products. This is where raw production meets export markets.
Terroir Products: Argan oil, saffron, honey, regional cheeses, traditional preserves, herbs and spices. Many stands are run by women's cooperatives. These products have real international market potential and SIAM is one of the few places you can compare them side by side.
Nature and Environment: Organic farming, renewable energy integration, water conservation, soil health. The show doesn't treat sustainability as optional content.
International Pavilions: Around 70 countries participating. France, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, India, China, and Brazil are among the regulars. Portugal's pavilion, as guest of honor, will be the most prominent.
Equipment and Inputs: Seeds, fertilizers, veterinary products, irrigation components, greenhouses. Direct access to suppliers, with the ability to compare options and negotiate on-site.
Water Management: Its own dedicated section, which tells you everything you need to know about where Moroccan agriculture's priorities are. Drip irrigation, water harvesting, desalination for agriculture, precision irrigation controllers.
Finance and Insurance: Agricultural credit institutions, crop and livestock insurance, investment funds, development banks. For anyone serious about doing business in Moroccan agriculture, this is a useful section.
Innovation and Research: Agricultural universities, research institutes, extension services, and the Ministry of Agriculture. Where the research-to-implementation connection gets made.
For Professionals: What SIAM Actually Delivers
The first three days are reserved for professional visitors. If you're a buyer, exporter, equipment distributor, investor, or industry representative, these are the days to be there. Fewer crowds, more decision-makers, and a B2B environment that's genuinely productive.
The AD'OCC Occitanie mission gives you a sense of how seriously international companies treat SIAM: pre-qualified meetings, structured access to the B2B pavilion, networking receptions, company-level visibility. That kind of infrastructure exists across multiple national pavilions.
Agricultural equipment sales concluded at SIAM regularly exceed Morocco's typical annual import volumes for those categories. Food processing contracts signed during the show supply markets for years. SIAM is efficient in the way that a well-run trade show is: the right people are concentrated in one place for a week, and that saves months of individual travel.
If you're planning to attend as a professional, pre-register, identify which countries' pavilions and which poles are most relevant to your sector, and secure your B2B meetings in advance. Walking in cold and hoping to find relevant contacts works, but it's not the best use of the format.
For First-Time Visitors: What to Expect
The public days start April 23. Entry costs around 40 MAD for adults and 10 MAD for children, based on previous editions. Buy online at epay.salon-agriculture.ma to avoid the queue, which gets long on weekends.
Weekday visits are calmer. Saturday and Sunday bring massive family crowds, especially in the regional product sections and around the livestock competitions. If you're going with children, any day works, the educational content is well-designed. If you're going to actually see the exhibition properly, Tuesday or Thursday is better.
Arrive at 9 AM or around 10:30 AM. Midday is the busiest period. Late afternoon (after 4 PM) tends to calm down.
The venue is enormous. 200,000 square meters means a lot of walking. Comfortable shoes are not optional. Bring a reusable bag if you plan to buy products, many visitors leave with regional specialties that aren't available in supermarkets. Cash is preferred at most stands, especially cooperatives and smaller producers, though cards are accepted at larger exhibitors.
It's worth spending time in the regional pavilions even if you're not sourcing professionally. The argan oil cooperatives, the saffron producers from Taliouine, the date varieties from the south: these are things you can taste and buy at source, and the producers are happy to explain what they do. That kind of direct access is rare.
Getting There
From Fès: N6 highway west, about 60 km, an hour by car. Taxis from Fès train station to Meknès city center are available, and from there another taxi to the venue.
From Rabat or Casablanca: A2 highway to Meknès. Two to three hours depending on departure point. Highway signs are clear.
By train: ONCF connects Meknès to Casablanca, Rabat, Fès, and other major cities. The Meknès train station is about 15 minutes by taxi from the exhibition grounds. Taxis from the station to SIAM cost around 20–30 MAD.
By air: Fès-Saïss Airport is 60 km away and serves domestic routes and some European destinations. For long-haul international connections, Casablanca's Mohammed V International Airport is three hours by road. Ground transport from both airports to Meknès is straightforward by hired car or shared taxi.
During SIAM week, Meknès hotels fill up quickly. Book accommodation as early as possible. Fès is a viable base if Meknès is fully booked, given the 60 km distance.
The Context Behind the Theme
Sustainable animal production is not an abstract goal in Morocco. The country loses water faster than it can replace it. Fodder crops are expensive and often imported. Small-scale livestock farmers, who make up the majority of the sector, operate with thin margins that climate variability makes thinner every year.
The show will feature livestock breeds selected for heat tolerance and feed efficiency, water-efficient feeding systems, renewable energy applications in livestock operations, cooperative models that give small producers better market access, and precision technologies that reduce cost and waste.
Food sovereignty has a similarly concrete meaning here. When supply chains break, countries that depend on imported protein or grain feel it immediately. Morocco's strategy is to close those gaps over the coming decade by investing in domestic production of crops that currently come from abroad, strengthening regional food systems, and building more value-added processing capacity.
SIAM is where the equipment, the investment, the policy, and the farmers working through this transition actually meet.
Contact and Official Resources
Official SIAM website: salon-agriculture.ma
General inquiries: contact@salon-agriculture.ma
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