Morocco : Decrease in cherry tomato production

Due to bad weather, the tomato export season is only just starting in the Souss, it is beginning lat…

Due to bad weather, the tomato export season is only just starting in the Souss, it is beginning later than last year and it is a slow start. However, exported volume is similar to last year, which reached over 440,000 tons in the Souss Massa.

Ahmed Mouflih, Director of the Interprofessional Fruit and Vegetable Federation (Fidel) says that there is “a decrease in cherry tomato production, but it will be made up for with round tomatoes. This decrease is due to high production costs (equipment, packaging, manual labour). However, round tomatoes are less popular on the market compared to cherry, cocktail and vine tomatoes.

Overall, there will not be a great difference in exported volume compared to last year. 95% of national exports come from Souss. In 2014-2015, 90% of the exported tomatoes were destined for the EU, 8% to Russia and 2% to the rest of the world.