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Rabat – Morocco almost overtook Spain in tomato exports to the European Union between 2018 and 2022, according to the agriculture-focused website Fresh Plaza.
In its report, the website showed that Morocco’s tomato exports to EU countries in the first 10 months of 2022 rose by 38%, while Spanish exports dropped by nearly 24%.
Over the 10 first months of 2022, Spain’s tomato exports totaled 424 million kilos to other EU countries, down from 558 million kilos compared to 2018.
Morocco was the second largest tomato exporter to Europe in 2022, with 405 million kilos of tomatoes in 2022, a significant increase from the 293 million kilos it sold to EU countries in 2018.
The rise in Morocco’s tomato exports is in line with a number of state strategies, including the Green Generation plan aiming to boost Morocco’s agriculture and increase the sector’s exports.
In November of 2022, the Moroccan Association of Fruit and Vegetable Exporting Producers (APEFEL) announced its plans to double tomato exports.
While this plan presents an opportunity to Morocco to boost agriculture’s added value and increase the inflow of foreign currency, it has faced significant challenges due mainly to climate-induced water scarcity.
In addition, increasing supplies to Europe is likely to trigger uproar among European farmers, especially in Spain and France.
In 2022, an organization of French farmers made headlines for staging a series of protests against Morocco’s vegetable imports, claiming that they are “not free trade” and have “unfair competitive prices.”
Read Also: Moroccan Tomato Producers Want to Double Their Exports
