Despite the market being in a state of shock from the sharp price decline, Morocco is still expanding its presence in the global frozen raspberry market and has now caught up to Ukraine.
According to East Fruit, an information and analytics platform for the growth of the horticulture business, Moroccan exports of frozen raspberries have more than doubled in volume. Two years earlier, they hardly reached 3 600 tonnes.
East Fruit’s analytical report called Morocco’s results ‘a shock factor’ in their study of raspberry prices and its international market.
“Morocco is a unique example of a development model for the export of berries. Initially, taking advantage of the climate, it focused on the exports of high-value-added products,” said Andriy Yarmak, an economist at the Investment Center of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Morocco exported $60 million worth of frozen raspberries over the course of a year, a 2.7-fold increase in value, said the same source.
The analysis explained that Morocco, which was not a major player in the frozen raspberry market until a few years ago, is quickly catching up to Ukraine, which is the third-largest exporter of raspberries after Serbia and Poland.
Despite the Russia-Ukraine war, the latter still provided the world with high volumes of raspberry in 2022, and even beat its previous records.
“The baton for a long-term reduction in the price of frozen raspberries in the EU passed in January 2023 from Ukraine to Morocco. As soon as it seemed to the European freezers that by the end of 2022 the price of raspberries had stabilized around 3.20-3.30 euros per kg for “extra” quality, Moroccan exporters entered the market in January 2023, offering raspberries at 2.5- 2.6 euro/kg!” noted the report.
In 2022, Morocco’s exports of fresh blackberries and raspberries broke previous records and reached 56 200 tonnes, a 36% rise from the previous year.
The most intriguing fact, according to the same source, is that the $307 million in the income generated by the export of fresh raspberries is 65 times greater than that of frozen berries.
As a result, the export of blackberries and raspberries brings in a whopping $367 million for Moroccan farmers each year.
It is interesting to note that, despite being so close to the EU’s border, Ukraine does not export fresh raspberries, preferring instead to concentrate on the low-margin frozen berry market.
The EU markets, particularly Germany, receive the majority of the fresh and frozen raspberries produced in Morocco.
The region of Morocco’s frozen berry exports has, however, widened considerably as of 2022.
“It should be noted that for the first time, frozen raspberries from Morocco were exported in large volumes in 2022 to the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Tunisia, South Africa, Croatia, Canada, Qatar, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia,” noted East Fruit.
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