Morocco is being forced to restrict its tomato exports due to high internal prices. Cherry tomatoes are not affected by the restrictions.

The head of Morocco’s main fruit and vegetable exporters’ group said the kingdom has restricted tomato exports since late February, with a total ban imposed during the week to bring down internal prices. In a statement to Reuters on Friday, Lahoucine Aderdour, head of the Federation of Moroccan Fruit and Vegetable Exporters (FIFEL), said the Ministry of Agriculture had agreed on a daily export quota last month before halting all exports from 18 to 22 March, with a lower quota of 700 tonnes per day from Thursday.

He added that on Friday exporters received a quota of 1,000 tonnes, less than the usual 1,500 tonnes. The official was also keen to point out that more expensive products, such as cherry tomatoes, which represent more than half of Morocco’s tomato exports, are not affected by the restrictions.

This year, the vegetable harvest has been severely disrupted by bad weather in Morocco and Spain. This has resulted in shortages in Europe and higher prices, which helped push up inflation in the UK to 10.4% in February.

Traders are already expressing fears about the impact of export cuts on their share of key EU and UK markets. “We are not honoring our long-term supply contracts,” one trader told the news agency, noting that the bulk of contracts with British customers is signed a year in advance at fixed prices. “Morocco’s credibility as a stable supplier of tomatoes to the EU and UK markets is at stake,” he added.

Read Also: UK market faces tomato shortage after exports from Morocco and Spain drop

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The shortage of Moroccan tomatoes in the UK has greatly affected market stalls in the country. On social networks, several British citizens have shared photos of empty shelves in supermarkets.

The UK vegetable market is apparently experiencing a shortage of tomatoes. Morocco and Spain, considered the main suppliers of tomatoes to the UK, are cited by British professionals as the cause of these shortages, which they attribute to a lack of domestic production in recent times or other conditions.

Specialising in agriculture, the website ‘Fruitnet’ reports that there are major problems with the supply of Moroccan tomatoes in the UK, according to importers who fear a domestic shortage, but also according to citizens, who have widely shared on social networks, photos of empty shelves in many supermarkets across the site, the site said.

The availability of our tomato range has been significantly affected by adverse weather conditions in Spain and Morocco. The current shortage is expected to improve within a few weeks,” reads a photo shared on social media of a shelf in a UK supermarket.

The reasons for the drop in tomato supplies from Morocco, according to the website, are weather-related.

“In the North African country, farmers and suppliers have had to deal with cold temperatures, heavy rain, flooding and cancelled ferries for three to four weeks, which have severely affected the volume of vegetable imports reaching the UK,” noting that “bad weather in Spain and Morocco, where most tomatoes come from, is affecting supplies.

Other sources have attributed the current shortage of tomatoes in the UK to high energy costs, saying that ‘tomato growers are finding it difficult to heat their greenhouses because of the cost’.

British Tomato Growers Association spokeswoman Julie Woolley told The Grocer: “Wholesale petrol prices are affecting all growers, and tomato availability is a global issue.

The National Farmers’ Union confirmed that these problems are currently affecting all UK fruit and vegetable growers, not just tomato growers.

It is worth noting that trade relations between Morocco and the UK have improved significantly following the Brexit. The volume of bilateral trade last year amounted to 22.9 billion dirhams.

Read Also: Brexit boosts Moroccan-UK trade by nearly 50%

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Morocco has raised its tomato exports to the United Kingdom by 33.68 percent since Brexit, outperforming Spain.

Between January and November 2021, the UK dropped its tomato purchases from Spain by 24.1 percent, according to Spanish news outlet Diario de Almeria.

Moroccan tomato exports grew as a result of the association agreement concluded between the UK and Morocco following Brexit, according to data collated by Hortoinfo.

Between January and November 2020, British importers purchased 79.1 million kg of Spanish tomatoes, according to the news agency. In the same time of 2021, the figure reduced to 60 million kilos.

During the same period in 2020, the UK purchased 72.8 million kg of tomatoes from Morocco.

In the same period of 2021, the figure was 97.3 million.

According to data, the Netherlands, Morocco, and Spain supply 91.36 percent of the UK’s tomatoes.

According to the EU Agricultural Outlook 2021-2031, Morocco is still the number one supplier of fresh tomatoes to the EU.

For years, Moroccan tomatoes have been a cause of anxiety for Spanish growers.

In 2021, a group of European agricultural producers from a number of nations, notably Spain, expressed worry over the growing presence of Moroccan products on EU marketplaces.

The producers met virtually to discuss how to establish a united front against the “threat” of Moroccan shipments to Europe.

In October 2021, 200 farmers from Almeria, Spain, along with representatives from fruit and vegetable firms, organized a demonstration against Spain’s import of Moroccan agricultural products around the city’s port.

According to data from Fresh Plaza, the EU’s tomato imports from Morocco have climbed by 26% in the last five years.

Tomato imports into the European Union increased from 344,094 tonnes in 2016 to 435,041 tonnes in 2020.

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