Morocco’s agriculture sector is understood to be outraged by proposed new EU import rules that could potentially destroy Morocco’s tomato industry, reports FreshFruitPortal.com.
Morocco’s agriculture minister Aziz Akhannouch told Moroccan press that a change to the EU Entry Price System for Fruits and Vegetables agreed by the European parliament on 7 April was “astonishing and incomprehensible”, because it would give Europe the power to calculate fixed import values.
An agriculture consultant told a Moroccan news site that the new measures required exporters to use a standard import value for their produce, often well below entry prices – a measure that would effectively penalise growers of high-quality products like cherry tomatoes.He calculated that 30-50 per cent of tomato exports would be stung by the new rules.
Agriculture minister Akhannouch said the EU-Moroccan partnership was being jeopardised, and that Morocco’s tomato growers were at risk of collapse under the new rules.
European Union director general of agriculture and rural development Jerzy Plewa plans to visit Morocco next week (23 April) to follow up on technical level discussions relating to the amendment, the report said.
