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Rabat – Copa-Cogeca, a union of farmers and agri-cooperatives in the EU submitted a letter to the European Trade Commission, expressing concerns about the “consequences of the EU-Morocco agreement.”
The union expressed frustration about Morocco’s fruit and vegetable exports to the EU.
According to Hortoinfo, Copa-Cogeca is asking the European Commission to “act quickly in the face of the dramatic disturbance in the fruit and vegetable market caused by the EU-Morocco agreement.”
The union also complained about the impacts of Brexit, saying that EU tomato prices have fallen to levels that do not cover production costs for most European producers.
“The provisions established in the EU-Morocco agreement, which were revised in 2014 and regulate the export of tomatoes originating from Morocco to the EU are inefficient,” the letter said.
The union added that the safeguard clause provided for in the treaty “has never been activated, despite the severe depreciation of tomato prices in the EU markets, which led to the importation of 500,000 tons of tomatoes in 2020.”
For the Copa-Cogeca, the number corresponds to double the quota calculated.
This is not the first time European producers express frustration.
In May, tomato producers from Spain, France, Italy, and Portugal met in a virtual meeting to discuss the growing number of Moroccan products imported in Europe.
Agricultural news outlet FreshPlaza announced that Morocco has annually exported about 332, 231 tonnes of tomatoes to the EU after the Association Agreement was sealed between the EU and Morocco in 2011.
The number increased to 518, 190 tonnes by 2020.
Between January 2018 and May 2019, Morocco sold over 426.07 million kilograms of tomatoes to the EU.
In response to the concerns from EU producers, the Moroccan Confederation of Agriculture and Rural Development (COMADER) said that Moroccan and vegetable exports to the EU represent only 2% of the market.
“It seems difficult to understand how this 2% can destabilize or harm so much the production of European fruit and vegetables,” COMADER said.
