Taking advantage of the free trade agreement with the European Union (EU), Morocco is flooding the European market with its fruits and vegetables and particularly tomatoes, Spanish and French farmers are protesting. “Morocco is violating the law and the EU is doing nothing,” they said during a meeting with the press, organized by COAG, the Spanish professional agricultural organization, and in which the French union took part. Confédération Paysanne, the Polisario Front and the NGO Mundubat.
According to The DebateCOAG denounced on this occasion the inaction of the EU in the face of the invasion of Moroccan products: “At the price we are at, we will never be able to compete with Morocco and Mercosur,” declared Manuel Yaben, representative of the Spanish agricultural association. “The products harvested in Western Sahara are not Moroccan. Morocco is violating the law and the European Commission is doing nothing,” regretted Manuel Devers, lawyer for the Polisario Front.
Read: Tomatoes: Europe under pressure in the face of the Moroccan offensive
Spanish and French farmers consider the massive importation of Moroccan fruits and vegetables as unfair competition, as Morocco is not subject to the phytosanitary standards required in the EU. Thanks to the agreement with the EU, Morocco exports 285,000 tonnes of tomatoes each year without customs duties to the EU. A volume which has reached 500,000 tonnes since 2019, indicates Andrés Góngora, responsible for fruit and vegetables at COAG, which has caused Spain to lose 71.7 million euros over the last five years.
-European farmers have also complained about the collapse of tomato prices due to unfair competition from Morocco. “ […] This is a fraudulent system that disguises the price and smuggles all types of tomatoes from Morocco. Tomatoes are sold in bulk at a price incompatible with the liquidation of customs duties, because the price of the tomato is lower than that of the duty itself,” explained Góngora.
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