Morocco accused of "slowly killing" Spanish agriculture

The Spanish orange has the blues. Forecasts for the 2025/2026 season are alarming: the harvest is expected to drop to 5.44 million tonnes, a decrease of nearly 11% compared to the previous year. This is the lowest figure recorded in sixteen years. Faced with this carnage, local producers denounce the devastating effect of the European Union’s trade agreements that open the door wide to imports.

For Spanish agricultural unions, the competition is considered unsustainable. They accuse Morocco, Egypt and South Africa of unfair competition by flooding the market with lower-cost fruits. The argument is well-rehearsed: cheaper labor and what is considered too "lax" phytosanitary legislation in the southern neighbors would allow them to undercut prices, according to El Debate.

The anger is expressed through desperate gestures. In Andalusia, farmers have started uprooting their orange trees, unable to compete. "Thank you to our politicians for ruining us," ironizes a producer from Cordoba in a video that went viral, explaining that his trees now have more of a place in Morocco or South Africa than in Spain.

While Morocco is a traditional target, South Africa is also crystallizing tensions this year. Since October 2025, South African citrus fruits have been entering the EU without customs duties. The result: imports have soared by 42%.

An opening that also raises questions of health security. Barely ten days after the removal of customs barriers, a batch of South African clementines was flagged by the European alert system for an excessive level of pesticides, reinforcing the Spanish argument about the lack of reciprocity in standards.