Morocco has been rapidly expanding its presence in the Japanese market for frozen strawberries, reports EastFruit. The export volumes have been growing for several seasons in a row and finallly hit 3,700 tonnes in the MY 2022/23 (July-June).
Interestingly, the Moroccan exports to Japan had a negative trend just several years ago. However, they almost quadrupled over the past three years, bringing the revenue of more than $6 mln in the MY 2022/23.
Previously, frozen strawberries were usually exported from Morocco to Japan in spring, with volumes in other months either being insignificant or even standing at zero. In the MY 2022/23, Moroccan exporters have for the first time ever managed to be present in the Japanese market all year round.
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Japan is one of the largest importers of frozen strawberries in the world, ranking 9th in the respective list of countries. Japan is also the second after China largest importer of this product in Asia. In its turn, China is a large exporter of frozen strawberries and accounts for the most important part of the Japanese market for imported frozen strawberries.
Nevertheless, Japan tends to import less frozen strawberries from China, while imports from Morocco keep their growth. Thus, the share of Morocco in the total imports in Japan reached 14% in the MY 2022/23 and hit 30% in April-May, the peak of Moroccan exports.
Despite such a progress, Morocco is still behind Egypt in the frozen strawberry exports to Japan, and Egypt continues to remain the second most important supplier of frozen strawberries to the Japanese market. However, Morocco has been ousting the USA and Chile from Japan and now ranks fourth in the list of suppliers.
Morocco has also been the fourth largest exporter of frozen strawberries in the world since 2018, with its total export volumes slowly going down since the MY 2019/20. In the current MY, the exports totaled 45,000 tonnes after standing at 68,000 tonnes in the MY 2017/18.
The Moroccan exports to Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium have halved over the past five years. Moreover, in the MY 2022/23, almost all export markets imported less frozen strawberries from Morocco than a year before, with Japan as an exception thanks to an increase of 25% in exports.
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