Spanish Tomato Industry Struggles as Moroccan Imports Surge in EU Market

Moroccan tomatoes, easily exported to the European market thanks to the Morocco-EU agreement and sold at reduced prices, are the main competitor of Spanish tomatoes whose production volume has significantly decreased in recent years. While Moroccan exports to the EU have more than doubled in a century, tomato exports from Almería, Spain have fallen by 20% over the past five years, reports Diario de Mallorca.

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This agreement provides for the implementation of a number of measures aimed, in the case of Moroccan tomatoes, at ensuring a certain level of community preference: specific entry prices, payment of ad valorem duties for quantities exceeding 285,000 tons. The agreement also includes a safeguard clause that would allow measures to be taken in the event of serious market disruption or harm to the producer.

In practice, these clauses are not respected, observes the newspaper, which specifies that there is no ceiling price for the entry of Moroccan tomatoes, and that the safeguard clause has never been implemented. In other words, Moroccan tomatoes arrive on the European market at any price, notes the same source, recalling that these Moroccan exports reached more than 500,000 tons in 2020.