Moroccan tomato exports increased by 21 percent in 2009.

TRANSLATES INTO A TOTAL OF 403.420 TONS SOLD IN THE EU AND OTHER MARKETS.

According to the newspaper “The Economist”, These benefits were due to the increase in prices at the end of 2008 and in the first quarter of the current year, what, in April, The export tomato price was one euro per kilo..

However, Morocco could have done even better, in the opinion of the president of the Association of Fruit and Vegetable Exporters Producers (Apefel), Abderrazak Muiset.

For Muiset, The development of the sector is hampered by the scarcity of water resources in the Souss-Massa-Draa region., in the south of the country, main tomato production area, but also with EU regulations.

“The advanced status granted by the EU will not change the situation of Moroccan fruit and vegetable exports, unless Europe echoes our request for free circulation of fruits and vegetables“, indicated the president of Apefel.

Farmers in the Maghreb country request unlimited circulation of their products, instead of adopting the regulations in force for the countries of the Union, which establishes export quotas per country, according to the dictates of the CAP.

Morocco is thus looking for a way out of the production that is expected to increase until 2020, thanks to the launch, last year, of the Green Plan, with measures to promote the accelerated development of national agriculture, based on the modernization of farms and supportive and sustainable agriculture.

The application of this plan aims, long term, an increase of 45 percent in exports in vegetables, and 44 percent in citrus.