Morocco is imposing quotas on tomato exports in an effort to boost local supplies and lower prices ahead of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
(Bloomberg) — Morocco is imposing quotas on tomato exports in an effort to boost local supplies and lower prices ahead of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
Rising input prices, pest attacks and repeated droughts have combined to hamper production at the world’s fourth-largest tomato shipper. The restrictions on Morocco’s packing factories that handle supplies for export could exacerbate the produce shortfalls that have already sparked rationing at some European supermarkets.
The government, along with fruit and vegetable exporters group APEFEL and the Moroccan producers group FIFEL, agreed last week to set aside a portion of the volume processed for exports, according to a FIFEL member and a packing industry executive in the key tomato-planting Souss region, who both spoke on condition of anonymity. The curbs are being added ahead of Ramadan that starts in March to ensure adequate domestic supplies of the staple food.
Farmers have had to reduce planting as authorities imposed rare rationing of irrigation water for hundreds of thousands of hectares in key growing regions. A recent cold spell worsened the situation, and production of tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, eggplant and peppers is declining, said Hamid Felloun, a member of Morocco’s agri-business lobby group Fenagri.
Morocco’s $9 billion-a-year agribusiness export sector “lacks visibility about when production and prices will return to normal,” Felloun said.
Redouane Arrach, the Agriculture Ministry’s secretary general, declined to discuss problems affecting production or pricing, saying only that his department will issue a statement Thursday. He didn’t reply to a request for comment on the export restrictions.
Officials at Morocco’s producers lobby FIFEL and the agriculture lobby group Comader declined to comment on the tomato controls.
Morocco also curbed exports of its mainly Europe-bound tomatoes last year, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine boosted global food prices and sparked a raft of crop protectionism.
–With assistance from Megan Durisin.
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