British Farmers Consider Moving Production to Morocco Amid Rising Costs

Rabat – In a bid to address food security amid rising production costs, British producers of fruits and vegetables consider shifting their operations to warmer countries including Morocco.

Chief Executive of the British Growers Association Jack Ward on Thursday told Reuters that the European production of fruit and vegetables is expected to move south.

“We will move production further and further south, down through Spain and into Morocco and bits of Africa,” he said.

The ongoing surge in energy prices has prompted farmers in northern and western Europe to halt or cut their activities, says Ward. He argues that the rising production costs are set to impact the growth of crops such as tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers that require heated greenhouses during winter.

Meanwhile, the production of apples, onions, and endives which necessitate cold storage of crops will also be impacted.

Unbearable energy bills and fertilizer prices have heavily impacted farmers in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain.

With France’s electricity contracts for 2023 rising by tenfold since 2021, Germany’s agriculture production costs increasing by 30% this year, and hundreds of Dutch farmers reporting financial distress, European farmers appear to be under mounting pressure.

“In the coming weeks I will plan the season but I don’t know what to do,” says Benjamin Simonot-De Vos, a French grower of cucumbers, tomatoes, and strawberries. “If it stays like this there’s no point starting another year. It’s not sustainable.”

Echoing Benjamin’s concerns, Deputy Sales Manager at the German cooperative Reichenau-Gemüse said that some German farmers are planning to cut production.

“Some colleagues are thinking about leaving their greenhouses empty to keep the costs as low as possible,” he said. “Nobody knows what will happen next year.”

As European agricultural producers turn to Morocco to increase their profit margin amid a serious economic crisis, some French and Spanish farmers continue to protest the importation of Moroccan fruits and vegetables, questioning the quality of the goods.

Whether European fruit and vegetable growers succeed or fail in relocating parts of their operations to Morocco, the North African country is already grappling to sustain its diminishing water supply for households, industries, and agriculture.

Faced with an acute water crisis, Morocco, which is widely known for producing and exporting water-intensive crops such as tomatoes, watermelons, citrus, and cucumbers, is trying to invest in desalination plants to address water shortages that are becoming more prevalent due to climate change.