Morocco has significantly boosted its onion exports to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as reported by EastFruit. In 2024, Moroccan exporters shipped over 5,500 tons of onions to the UAE, valued at $1.1 million, setting a new record in the trade relations between the two countries.
Over the past five years, Moroccan onions were mainly exported to African countries and the Netherlands, with shipments to other destinations not exceeding a thousand tons. The first recorded shipment of Moroccan onions to the UAE was in 2009, totaling just 500 kg, with the highest volume of 450 tons recorded in 2013. However, in 2024, the situation changed dramatically, with exports increasing more than tenfold compared to the total shipments over the past five years.
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Consequently, the UAE accounted for nearly 10% of Morocco’s annual onion export structure, second only to shipments to Mauritania and Côte d’Ivoire. In total, Morocco exported onions to 31 countries in 2024.
India, the world’s largest onion exporter, was the primary supplier of onions to the UAE. However, in 2024, a sharp rise in domestic onion prices in India led the government to impose an export ban. As a result, the UAE had to source onions from other countries, which Moroccan traders capitalized on by increasing their shipments. By the end of the year, Morocco emerged as one of the top eight key suppliers of onions to the UAE, with a market share of 1.8%. Overall, in 2024, onions were exported to the UAE from 30 countries.
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