Morocco sharply increased its carrot exports to Spain, reports EastFruit. In the MY 2022/23 (July-June), Spain imported 5.7 times more carrots from Morocco than a year earlier. Moreover, the Moroccan exports to Spain in the current MY exceeded those of the previous six seasons combined!
This is a remarkable achievement considering that for several previous years, carrots from Morocco were shipped to Spain in relatively small quantities, with the volumes ranging between 20 and 280 tons per MY. As a result, over six years, only 936 tons of carrots were imported to the Spanish market from Morocco. In the current season, Moroccan growers sharply increased their exports. More than 1,500 tons of carrots (valued at 720,000 USD) were delivered to Spain from Morocco, with the peak of exports observed in February-March of this year.
It should be noted that Spain itself is a large exporter (and re-exporter) of carrots and ranks 8th among the world’s suppliers of these vegetables. At the same time, the country actively imports carrots, and in the MY 2022/23, 22,500 tons of carrots from abroad arrived on the Spanish market. Spain imports carrots from 12 countries, and the main volumes are delivered from the Netherlands, France, and Portugal (87% of imports come from these countries).
The share of Moroccan carrots in total imports in Spain was about 1% over the past 6 seasons, but at the end of the MY 2022/23 it increased to 7%. Here, a certain role was played by the drought that hit Europe in 2022, when not only Spain and Portugal suffered, but also France. As a result, carrot exports from France decreased in the MY 2022/23, including shipments to Spain. Morocco was able to take advantage of this and increased supplies to the Spanish market.
By the way, in the MY 2022/23, Morocco surpassed Belgium (the second largest exporter of carrots in Europe) in terms of carrot supplies to Spain and became the fourth supplier after the Netherlands, Portugal and France.
Read also: Moroccan exports of ware potatoes reach 5-year low
This indicates that Morocco has managed to diversify its exports and expanded its presence in Europe, where carrots are not one of the main export categories for Morocco, unlike tomatoes or sweet peppers. Nevertheless, the North African country has been confidently increasing its exports of carrots. Over six years, they rose 7.6 times, totaling almost 52,000 tons (valued at $12,4 mln) in the MY 2022/23. In the ranking of world suppliers, Morocco moved from 30th place (2017) to 18th place (2022), and Moroccan carrots were exported to 34 countries in the current season.
Earlier EastFruit wrote that Morocco focuses on supplying carrots mostly to African countries, while exports to the EU remain insignificant. However, the results of the MY 2022/23 showed record high exports of Moroccan carrots not only to Spain. In the current season, Moroccan growers also managed to resume their supplies to Portugal for the first time in several years.
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