Tomato field
Morocco’s economy
Bad weather has ruined this year’s vegetable crops
Morocco has restricted tomato exports since late February and imposed a blanket ban last week until Thursday to lower domestic prices, said Alhoucine Ardour, head of Morocco’s main fruit and vegetable exporters’ union.
Erdour explained that the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forests (Agriculture) agreed on a daily quota of tomato exports last month before stopping all exports from March 18 to 22, and a smaller quota of 700 tons per day starting from Thursday.
On Friday, he added, the exporters got a quota of 1,000 tons, but it was less than their usual quota of 1,500 tons.
Erdower said the restrictions do not apply to high-priced products such as cherry tomatoes, which account for more than half of the country’s tomato exports.
Bad weather in Morocco and Spain spoiled vegetable crops this year, reducing the availability of fresh vegetable dishes in Europe and driving up prices that helped push UK inflation up to 10.4% in February.
Traders fear that shrinking exports will affect their share of their main markets in the European Union and Britain.
“We were unable to fulfill long-term supply contracts,” said one trader, adding that most contracts with British customers are signed a year in advance and at fixed prices.
“Morocco’s credibility as a stable supplier of tomatoes to both the EU and UK markets is being tested,” he added.
A government spokesman said on Thursday that it was impossible to talk about export at a time when domestic food prices were rising.
Inflation in Morocco led the central bank to raise the benchmark interest rate for three consecutive times by 50 basis points to 3% last Tuesday.
Food inflation jumped to 20.1% last month, bringing headline inflation to 10.1%, a level not seen since the 1980s.
“We expect normal export activity to resume with an improvement in production,” said Ardour.
Morocco also imposed some restrictions last year, but dropped them after a drop in domestic prices.
According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, the “Souss-Massa” region, the main producer of tomatoes in Morocco, expects to produce 695,000 tons this year, down from 975,000 tons last year.
One of the exporters said the export ban could prompt farmers to grow cherry tomatoes or other unrestricted products.
“Given the cost of production now and the export ban… round tomatoes are no longer a profitable business,” he added.