EU-Morocco Trade Tensions Simmer as Tomato Wars Heat Up

A few weeks before the date of October 4, the "anti-Moroccan" lobbies are trying to put pressure on the EU not to renew its agreements with Morocco. On October 4, 2024, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) had annulled these agreements on the grounds that they had been concluded without the consent of the populations of the Sahara, recalls Challenge, specifying that the European court had maintained the agricultural agreement for a period of 12 months from October 4, 2024 due to "the serious negative consequences on the external action of the Union that its immediate annulment would entail and for reasons of legal certainty".

According to sources, European tomato producers and professionals would be preparing to work for the non-renewal of the EU-Morocco agricultural agreement to curb the arrival of Moroccan tomatoes, particularly the cherry tomato which is very popular with European consumers. At the maneuver, the lobbyist Philippe Hériard of the Droit devant agency, who would have exchanged at the end of June with the French MEP of the Rassemblement national (RN) Gilles Pennelle. Representatives of Tomates et concombres de France would have taken part in this session.

Also in June, the number two of the agriculture and rural development section of the European Commission, Pierre Bascou, had also met several times with representatives of the Spanish agricultural organization Coordinadora de Organizaciones de Agricultores y Ganaderos (Coag) to discuss, among other things, the issue of Moroccan tomatoes. For its part, the association Tomates et concombres de France has put pressure on French parliamentarians who have questioned the French Minister of Agriculture, Annie Genevard, on this unfair competition that she says she is suffering from Morocco.

The French organizations Légumes de France (FNSEA) the AOPn Tomates, Concombres de France and the Moroccan associations FranceAgriMer and Interfel are continuing negotiations to put in place mechanisms to avoid this Moroccan competition of cherry tomatoes from 2026. For the record, France is the largest European importer of fresh Moroccan tomatoes and the third largest importer of tomatoes in the world, after the United States and Germany.