ARCHIVED - Murcia tomato exports down by 20 per cent

Moroccan tomatoes replace those of Murcia in north European supermarkets

There was a time only a couple of decades ago when the Region of Murcia was barely known in northern Europe, and the only links between the Costa Cálida and the UK was the proliferation of tomatoes from Mazarrón on the shelves of supermarkets in the UK.

Nowadays that has changed substantially, due mainly to the growth of international and residential tourism, and little by little the name of Murcia is becoming known to more and more people outside Spain. However, the world of international agriculture has also moved on, and one of the consequences is that tomato exports from the Region are reported to have dropped by almost 20% over the course of the last twelve months alone. 

One of the main reasons for the fall in tomato production and export is that those purchasing tomatoes in northern Europe can do so more cheaply from Morocco, where labour costs are lower, and at the same time there has been a sharp increase in greenhouse production in the Netherlands. To a certain extent the Murcia producers lost ground in the early years of this century when in coastal areas some tomato plantations were abandoned in favour of speculative real estate development projects, and as a result of the fierce competition for the other side of the Mediterranean and Holland it is proving hard to win back that lost ground. 

This is demonstrated by the fact that while tomato exports from Murcia have fallen by 19.7% over the last year, Morocco’s exports have risen by 15%. This has made life difficult for the producers, who have been unable to sell all of their crops, and they blame the “avalanche” of Moroccan imported tomatoes in Europe. 

However, Moroccan farmers cannot be blamed for the fact that the winter of 2015-16 was an unusually warm one, another factor which contributed to one of the worst in living memory for the tomato growers of Mazarrón and Águilas. This is not because the tomato plants withered in the heat: on the contrary, there was over-production and a consequent drop in market price, with large numbers of tomatoes remaining unsold. 

Last year Murcia accounted for 131,000 of the 950,000 tons of tomatoes which were exported by Spain, generating 103 million euros of revenue in the Region, and almost all of the produce which left Murcia was headed for northern Europe, especially France and the UK. However, Spanish producers do not have access to the huge Russian market, and they also maintain that the minimum price mechanisms which exist in the EU for Moroccan tomatoes are not being applied. 

As for competition in the Netherlands, the use of high-tech greenhouses means that despite the cooler climate production there is now higher than in Spain, having doubled in recent years.

Between them, Spain, the Netherlands and Morocco accounted for just over 70% of all tomatoes sold in the EU last year, with the Region of Murcia contributing almost 14% of the total for Spain, and farmers are anxious to protect their market share in the future.