MOROCCO – Morocco’s bell pepper exports to Germany for the 2022/23 market year has amounted to 18,200 tons securing the country nearly USD 30 million in revenue.
The vegetable export rate has also witnessed an annual increase of 10% to 20% over the past few seasons.
“Morocco was actually the only major exporter of sweet peppers that managed to increase exports to Germany last season,” explained Yevhen Kuzin, a Fruit & Vegetable Market Analyst.
“At the same time, other countries, due to various problems, on the contrary, reduced supplies to the German market.”
According to a report recently published by EastFruit, Germany is one of the promising destinations for Morocco’s exports.
The country is the leading importer of sweet peppers in Europe, and in the world ranking, Germany has confidently ranked second since 2017, giving up the first place only to the USA.
More than half of all supplies of sweet peppers come to the country from Spain, and almost a quarter of the total volume is imported from the Netherlands.
In total, in the 2022/23 season, Germany imported this vegetable from 37 countries, including 4% of all imports accounted for supplies from Morocco.
Germany continues to occupy leading positions among importers, imports of sweet peppers to the country have decreased slightly over the past couple of years.
They reduced due to a decrease in supplies from two key directions – Spain and the Netherlands, owing to a recurrent severe drought in the region affecting fresh produce output.
The drought in Spain and the Netherlands has been affecting fresh produce output in the region 1. The drought has led to a significant reduction in the production of olive oil in Spain, which is the world’s largest producer of olive oil.
According to ESM Magazine, the country’s output is expected to be halved this year compared to the previous year, pushing prices up.
The drought has also affected the production of onions and fresh vegetables in the European Union. In addition, Spanish growers have attributed the recent shortage of fresh produce in the UK to weather conditions, rising costs, and Brexit.
Recently, the World Apple and Pear Association (WAPA) forecasted a drastic reduction in apple and pear production in EU for the year 2023 owing to the effects of the region’s severe drought.
The original EU apple estimates, which were released on 3 August 2023 during the Prognosfruit Conference, indicated a 3,3% decrease compared to last year, to a total of 11.4 million tons.
The EU pear crop for 2023 was estimated to decrease by 12,9% compared to last year’s crop with a total of 1.75 million tons.
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