Morocco's exports of fresh strawberries reached historic highs in 2022, generating $70Mln in revenue annually, new data from East Fruit, a platform for analytics and information on global fruit and vegetable markets, has shown.
In 2022, the country exported 22,400 tons of fresh strawberries to the global market, an increase of more than 17 percent from the previous year and is about 1,000 tons more than the previous record registered in 2019.
It was noted that even though the export volume of fresh strawberries is lower than that of frozen ones or of other fresh berries such as raspberries and blueberries, they are one of the key items of the country's fruit and vegetable exports. Moreover, fresh strawberries are included in Morocco's top-10 most exported fruits and vegetables.
The country has been increasing the exports of this commodity by an average of 3 percent since 2017. However, the data indicated that over the same period, exports of blueberries increased by 28 percent.
The platform praised Morocco's efforts made to diversify its supplies. The country is one of the largest exporters of strawberries with most of its exports going to the European Union. But in recent years, some new development trends of fresh strawberry exports from Morocco have emerged.
Spain has been one of the main importers of Moroccan strawberries. Almost six years ago, more than three-quarters of fresh strawberries were exported there. As of now, the data showed that Spain's market share stands at 20 percent.
Most of the strawberry cultivation projects were focused on deliveries to Spain, which is also one of the main investors in the country's agribusiness. The agency explained that Moroccan exporters, who traded through Spain, used to lose a large amount of revenue they would have gained from direct exports. Thus, over the time, the exporters managed to start direct supplies to other countries. As a result, the UK emerged as a leader in imports of Moroccan fresh strawberries. In 2022, the country imported almost half of the strawberry exports from Morocco.
Furthermore, over the past few years, the share of fresh strawberry importers from the Middle East has seen a sharp increase from 0.5 percent to 8 percent. In 2017, the region received just 56 tons of fresh strawberries from Morocco, but in 2022, this figure reached 1,700 tons. The primary buyers included the UAE and Qatar with 900 and 630 tons respectively. The rest was exported to Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.