For the first time in more than ten years, Morocco overtook Spain to become largest largest exporter of tomatoes, behind the Netherlands and Mexico, according to data from the United Nations Comtrade database.
The same UN data reveals that 10 years ago, Spain was ahead of Morocco by 124.74 %, and decreased by 118.98% to only 5.24% in 2021. Then in 2022, Morocco exported 21.34% more tomatoes than Spain.
In 2013, Spain exported 1,026.76 million kilograms of tomatoes to all destinations, while Moroccan exports did not exceed 457.93 million kilograms. In 2021, Morocco bridged the gap with an export total of 629.51 million kilograms as compared to Spain’s 662.49 million kilograms. It was in 2022 that Morocco exported 740.66 million kilograms, finally surpassing Spain’s exports that fell to 610.4 million kilograms.
In the past year (2022), The four countries ranked at the top: Mexico, the Netherlands, Morocco and Spain, exported six out of every ten tomatoes sold in the world, accounting for 60.03% of total sales.
Mexico exported 1956.21 million kilograms of tomatoes and ranked first at 27.84% of the global exports, followed by the Netherlands that exported 910.5 million kilograms(12.96%) , Morocco in third place with a total of 740.66 million kilograms(10.54% ), and then Spain at 4th place with an export of 610.4 million kilograms(8.69%).
In terms of destination, Moroccan tomatoes were sent primarily to France (374.99mkgs), followed by the United Kingdom( 140.79mkgs), the Netherlands(78.14mkgs), Spain(56.59mkgs), and finally, Mauritania(23.24mkgs). Meanwhile, 99.77% of first ranked country Mexico’s tomato exports were sent to the United States.
Germany made for the largest tomato buyer for both the Netherlands(364.34mkgs) and Spain(170.6mkgs), followed by the United Kingdom(149.73mkgs), Italy(62.31mkgs), Sweden(48.84mkgs), and Poland(48.08mkgs) for the Netherlands, and for Spain, France(82.42mkgs, the Netherlands(73.93mkgs), the United Kingdom (51.14mkgs), and finally Poland(45.76mkgs), according to “Comtrade”.
Thank you Morocco. Since Brexit the UK has been free to buy tomatoes (and strawberries, peppers, melons, etc.) from outside the EU. Finally we get way better fruit, and Morocco gets way more foreign income. True free trade, not the EU’s grossly oversubsidised and anti competitive protectionism.