Funding a BRCGS, IFS or ISO Project in Morocco: GIAC, CSF, Maroc PME

When a European retailer asks a Moroccan supplier for IFS Food Version 8 or BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9, or when a group decides that every plant must hold ISO 9001:2026, the next question is always the same: what can be funded locally? The answer lies in three schemes that do not overlap and a calendar that has to be respected. This guide is written for plant managers, finance directors and HR teams, including those of foreign-owned subsidiaries. It goes through the schemes item by item, with their reference rules and limits, and promises no amount.

Which schemes can fund a certification project in Morocco?

Three schemes cover three kinds of expense: the GIAC for training engineering, the CSF for training courses, and Maroc PME's PACT'Qualité for consulting and technical expertise. Capital expenditure and, unless confirmed, the certification audit sit outside all three.

According to the official PACT'Qualité page, the programme covers a quality diagnostic, compliance support, the documentation system, staff training on the requirements of the chosen standard, corrective and preventive actions, a mock audit and post-certification follow-up. The page names no specific standard; it refers to the "chosen standard", product or system. Before preparing the application, confirm with Maroc PME that the standard you target, such as BRCGS, IFS Food or FSSC 22000, is in scope, as well as the conditions that apply to groupings, cooperatives and start-up projects.

For international groups, one eligibility rule matters more than any other: the page excludes subsidiaries more than 50% owned by a company whose turnover exceeds MAD 200 million. A Moroccan plant of a large European or Gulf group will usually fall outside PACT'Qualité, while still being able to use the CSF and the GIAC, which follow the Moroccan employer and its vocational training tax (TFP). How turnover is assessed for groups, consortia and holding structures should be confirmed with Maroc PME.

The CSF rules are set out in our OFPPT CSF 2026-2027 guide, and our training funding page includes an indicative simulator.

What is a GIAC strategic study and training engineering?

Training engineering is the work that comes before the courses: identifying needs, setting a strategy and building the plan. Law No. 60-17 treats it as continuing training (Art. 7) and gives the GIACs the task of helping employers carry it out (Art. 20).

GIACs, the "inter-professional groupings supporting advice" referred to in the law (Art. 32), are associations set up by professional organisations. They operate under funding agreements with the OFPPT and can be contracted to support small and medium-sized companies (Art. 22). Their legal remit covers information and awareness actions, training strategy studies, engineering studies and training plans (Art. 20).

In practice there are two levels:

1. The strategic study, often called EDS (étude de diagnostic stratégique). It links the company's direction, for example "become an IFS-certified supplier to a European retailer before next season", to the skills that must be built. The GIAC manual calls it “studies and advice to define a development strategy”: the medium-term development strategy, the operational means it requires and the resulting skills needs; the CSF manual speaks of a “strategic diagnosis study”.
2. Training engineering itself. It turns that direction into needs by role, then into a prioritised, costed and scheduled plan, ready for the CSF files.

The GIAC manual reimburses 70% of the cost excluding tax of the strategic study and of the engineering, and raises the rate to 80% when the engineering follows a strategic study validated by the GIAC, within a reimbursement cap of MAD 100,000 per year and per company. For the food industry, the competent GIAC is the food industry GIAC (GIAC Agro). For other sectors, and for a company that is not a member of a professional federation, confirm the competent GIAC and its access conditions with the OFPPT.

Which parts of a BRCGS, IFS or ISO project are eligible?

A large share of the intangible costs can fall under one of the schemes, provided each item is placed with the right one. The table follows the items of a typical certification project.

Training sits on the border between two schemes. PACT'Qualité lists staff training on the standard's requirements among its support actions; the CSF reimburses courses entered in the training plan. Good practice is to decide, course by course and before filing, which funder carries which course, then write it into both the training plan and the consulting proposal. Awareness sessions built into a compliance assignment can stay with consulting; an internal auditor curriculum or a standard course for several departments fits the training plan better.

Capital expenditure follows the opposite rule: nothing in the three schemes targets works, equipment or laboratory testing. A major gap found during the diagnostic, such as insufficient segregation of raw and finished product flows or unsuitable foreign-body detection, must be costed early and funded separately, otherwise it holds up the audit date. For a subsidiary, this is usually the item that needs a group investment decision, and the one that takes longest to approve.

Finally, keep group reporting in mind. Head offices often want to know how much of a certification project was funded locally. The honest answer, until each file has been reviewed, is a simulation with its assumptions written down: the rule applied, the source, the cap assumed and the status of each request. Reporting a simulated amount as secured income is the most common way a funding plan loses credibility with a group finance team.

For a full breakdown of a certification budget, see our article on BRCGS, IFS and FSSC 22000 certification costs. For a first quality certification, our guide to ISO 9001 certification in Morocco applies the same logic.

In what order should the files be built?

The rule is simple: each request is filed before the expense it funds. Reversing the order is the surest way to lose funding.

1. Scope the project. Standard required by the buyer or the group, scope (products, lines, sites), audit deadline.
2. Check eligibility. Revenue and shareholding against the PACT'Qualité thresholds, TFP position for the CSF, sector GIAC.
3. Apply to Maroc PME. Online, on Maroc PME's application platform. Confirm with Maroc PME the review time and how expenses committed before its approval are treated: if in doubt, commit nothing beforehand.
4. File the engineering request with the GIAC. Before the skills needs analysis starts.
5. Build and file the CSF training plan. Every course of the project must be in it before the first session, to qualify as planned training.
6. Run the project. Diagnostic, compliance work, courses, internal audit, mock audit, with evidence at every step.
7. Pass the certification audit. With the chosen certification body, on a separate budget unless confirmed otherwise.
8. File the reimbursement claims and follow their review. Then move on to post-certification follow-up.

Steps 3, 4 and 5 run in parallel: three organisations, three calendars. It is the most administrative part of the project, and the one where a single point of contact saves the most time, especially for a subsidiary whose head office is not familiar with Moroccan schemes.

What does the set-up look like for a cannery in Agadir?

Take a sardine cannery in Agadir exporting to the European Union. A German retailer requires IFS Food Version 8; a UK customer asks for BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9. The company's turnover is below the PACT'Qualité threshold, it is not part of a large group, and it declares its TFP.

This is how we would allocate the items, without amounts, since amounts depend on scope, the company's caps and the review of each file:

• IFS and BRCGS gap analysis. Chapter by chapter against both standards, with one joint action plan. Target scheme: PACT'Qualité.
• Training engineering. Needs differ sharply between the HACCP team, line managers, seaming and sterilisation staff, and seasonal operators hired for the fishing season. The plan separates these groups and schedules the seasonal sessions before the season. Target scheme: the food industry GIAC (GIAC Agro).
• Courses. HACCP plan and canning hazards, IFS and BRCGS standards, internal auditors, food safety culture, operator hygiene in Arabic on site. Target scheme: CSF as planned training, with the plan filed before the first session.
• Compliance work and documentation. Procedures, records, hazard analysis, prerequisite programmes. Target scheme: PACT'Qualité.
• Mock audit. A few weeks before the initial audit, to measure the remaining gap. Target scheme: PACT'Qualité. Our article on the GFSI mock audit describes how it runs.
• Certification audits and capital expenditure. Foreign-body detection, flow separation, control equipment: own budget, identified separately.

If the same cannery were a subsidiary of a large group, the PACT'Qualité lines would move to the company's own budget or to group funding, while the GIAC and CSF lines would stay the same.

Which mistakes lose project funding?

Losses rarely come from a refusal in principle; they come from the wrong order, the wrong allocation or an incomplete file. This is the checklist we apply before a project starts.

• The standard, scope and audit deadline are written down and approved by management.
  
• PACT'Qualité eligibility (turnover, shareholding) is checked on the official page.
  
• The Maroc PME application is filed before the consulting assignment starts.
  
• The competent GIAC is identified and the engineering request is filed before the needs analysis.
  
• The training plan contains every course of the project and is filed before the first session.
  
• No expense is claimed from two funders; combination rules are confirmed in writing.
  
• The certification audit and capital expenditure are budgeted separately.
  
• Evidence (attendance, tests, evaluations, certificates, reports) is produced session by session.
  
• The reimbursement filing calendar is confirmed with each organisation.