Morocco launches low-cost mountain bikes

Morocco will start manufacturing low-cost competitive mountain bikes to be sold for less than $90 US.

Under a $1.4 million deal passed Monday with Moroccan trade-industry department, Moroccan company "Le Jeune-Maroc" will construct four models that will sell for a price between $65 and $90.

The Moroccan company also says it intends to sell 30,000 mountain bikes in 1999 and 70,000 units in 2001.

The project will give new momentum to the Moroccan bike industry and will help Moroccan professionals counter the dumping and penetration of foreign bikes into the Moroccan market.

Seventy five percent of bikes circulating in Morocco are imported from Asia while the other 25 percent are second-hand bikes brought by Moroccan immigrants from abroad.