Rabat – Moroccan farmers are expecting the recent wild heatwaves to affect Morocco’s tomato season.
Freshplaza reported today that farmers are already counting the “damage” while they are anticipating a major impact on the season.
“We’re still in the process of assessing the damage, and it’s still too early to quantify it,” one grower told the news outlet.
Morocco has witnessed wild rising temperatures in recent months, with regions all across the country witnessing an unprecedented rise in temperatures amounting to 50 degrees Celsius.
Growers have complained that the ongoing heatwaves came when farmers have been using new seeds to solve plant issues, stressing shortage in terms of new seeds to replace the plants that were affected by rising temperatures.
The situation comes amid citizens’ concerns about exports of vegetables and fruits to European and other markets despite drought.
Data from EastFruit in April said that tomatoes are the main export category for Morocco, which makes the North African country the fifth in the global ranking of tomato exporters in 2021.
In 2022, Morocco came out in third place overtaking global exporters, including Iran and Spain.
This sparked concerns among Moroccan citizens frustrated with previous skyrocketing tomato prices.
Others were also concerned about exports due to ongoing drought caused by lack of rainfall and the summer heatwaves.
Morocco’s Ministry of Equipment said last week that Morocco’s dams filling percentage reached 28.6%, which is down by 0.5% in the past week.
The ministry attributed the situation to the heatwaves as well as mud, describing them as the major reasons behind declining filling rates of dams across Morocco.
The country’s growth of tomato exports moved from 365,695 tonnes in 2021 to 557,225 tonnes in 2022.
