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Rabat – Spain received nearly half of its tomato imports from Morocco (45.3%), new data from the Spanish website Horto Info said.
The percentage comes from a total of 180 million kilograms of tomato imports from several countries.
The website said that Morocco exports around 81 million kilograms, worth €83.2 million (MAD 869 million) to Spain, with an average price of roughly €1 per kilogram (MAD 10.4).
Portugal comes second with 57.2 million for a total value of €31.8 million (MAD 331.5 million), while the Netherlands ranked third with 20.51 million kilograms.
Belgium is Spain’s fourth largest supplier, with 10.4 million kilograms.
Madrid ranked as the province with most of the imports (40.2 million kilograms), followed by Barcelona (26.9 million), Almeria (20.7 million kilograms), and Murcia (15.1 million kilograms).
Morocco’s significant performance in tomato exports to Spain has been angering farmers in Spain and other European countries.
In October 2021, 200 farmers from Almeria staged a demonstration around the city’s port to protest Spain’s importing of Moroccan agricultural products, citing threats to their local products.
In June 2021, a union of farmers and agri-cooperatives in the EU similarly submitted a letter to the European Trade Commission to express concerns about the consequences of the EU-Morocco agreement.
The union, Copa-Cogeca, asked the EU Commission to act quickly “in the face of the dramatic disturbance in the fruit and vegetable market caused by the EU-Morocco agreement.”
The EU labels Morocco as its biggest trade partner in its Southern Neighborhood.
“The EU is also the biggest foreign investor in Morocco, accounting for more than half of the country’s FDI stock,” the EU said.
Statistics from the European bloc show that 64% of Morocco’s exports went to the EU, while 51% of the country’s imports came from the EU in 2019.
“Total trade in goods between the EU and Morocco in 2020 amounted to €35.2 billion,” according to the EU data.
