US report highlights potential of Morocco’s fruit sector

The US department of Agriculture highlighted the potential of Morocco’s fruit sector, underlining that the Kingdom’s fruit exports more than doubled between 2016 and 2021 from $729 million to more than $1.5 billion.

Thanks to this performance, Morocco has become the 15th-largest fruit exporter in the world by value, the U.S. department said in a recent report.

The increase in fruit exports has been facilitated by recent investments in transportation infrastructure, which now enables perishable items to transit from Morocco’s southern provinces to Spain within 48 hours of packing, the source pointed out.

“Morocco has the largest container port in the Mediterranean, and investments have also been made in the construction of a new deep-water port in Dakhla in the Sahara region, projected to be operational by 2027,” the report noted.

“Morocco’s fruit exports account for less than 2 percent of world fruit exports, but considerable gains have been made in the last 6 years amidst an overall rise in global demand,” the US department stressed.

This was largely driven by substantial gains in berries (blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries), which now account for 60 percent of growth in fruit exports since 2016, it said, adding that a near constant but more modest rise in exports of avocados and watermelons has also contributed to expanding fruit exports, while exports of mandarins and oranges have contributed to overall growth, though they have slipped the past 2 years.

The European Union (EU) remained the top market in 2021 for fruit exports, accounting for 70 percent of exports by value, with the nearby countries of Spain and France being the primary destinations, according to the same source.

The United Kingdom replaced Russia as their second-largest market at 10 percent, while Canada and the United States each accounted for less than 5 percent, the report pointed out, recalling that Morocco is the only country in Africa with which the United States has a free trade agreement.