Algeria aspires to become a tomato exporting country, says Young Africa, which recalls that the sector is dominated globally by European countries such as the Netherlands and Spain, but also and above all by Morocco, its great rival, whose exports represent nearly 9% of total world exports. . In the current context, this objective will be difficult to achieve for Algeria which does not have many tomato producers, notes the magazine, citing the Tahraoui group which cultivates tomatoes on an estate of 400 hectares in Biskra, in the south. -east of Algiers, and the Souakri group, which produces cherry tomatoes on an area of 1,000 hectares in the M’Ghair desert, southwest of the Algerian capital.
Read: Tomatoes: Europe under pressure in the face of the Moroccan offensive
In addition, Algeria continues to condemn the production of tomatoes in Dakhla by companies such as Domaines Abbes Kabbage (DAK), a subsidiary of the Kabbage group, Idyl, and the Franco-Moroccan group Azura which started its production in the Moroccan Sahara in 2006 and has become one of the ten best-selling brands in France, the publication reports. Meanwhile, Moroccan tomato exports reached nearly 660,000 tonnes in 2023, according to data from the specialist website East Fruit, which represents 18.6% of exports to the European Union. Morocco is the second largest supplier of tomatoes to the EU, behind the Netherlands.
Read: Moroccan tomato production in the Sahara worries Spain
Globally, Morocco occupies the same place, behind the Netherlands and ahead of Spain, Iran and Mexico. The kingdom mainly exports to France (320,000 tonnes on average per year), the United Kingdom (122,000 tonnes), the Netherlands (65,000 tonnes), Spain (45,000 tonnes) and Mauritania (26 000 tonnes). The tomato sector in Morocco is facing climatic challenges (drought and water stress) and the spread of viruses, negatively impacting harvests. Despite this critical situation, tomato exports brought in nearly a billion euros to Morocco, or three quarters of the kingdom’s total fresh vegetable exports.
