Morocco has been expanding fresh berry exports, at a remarkable pace, to the Middle East, one of its key markets.
EastFruit, an information and analytics platform specializing in horticulture, reported that Moroccan exporters have boosted their shipments of fresh berries to the Persian Gulf countries by eightfold since the marketing year (MY) 2018/19 (July-June), and have already surpassed the previous year’s figures in the first months of the current season.
Morocco has been growing its fresh berry exports to the Middle East by an average of 64% annually over the past few seasons.
In the first four months of the MY 2023/24, the Kingdom has set a new record by exporting 127 tons of berries to the Persian Gulf market. However, the main supply period has not yet arrived, as shipments usually increase in November, peak between January and March, and gradually slow down by May.
It is worth noting that 40% of the 8 thousand tons of Moroccan exports in this direction in the 2022/23 season go to fresh blueberries. In the same season, blueberries became the most exported berry from Morocco to the Middle East for the first time, and their shipments have grown by more than 30 times since the MY 2018/19.
During the same period, strawberry exports of strawberries have witnessed an increase of almost fivefold, while fresh raspberry supplies rose more than fourfold.
Since the MY 2020/21, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been the main destination for Moroccan berries in the Middle East, benefiting from more than half of the export volumes by the end of the last MY 2022/23.
Other important markets include Qatar and Saudi Arabia; exports from Morocco to the latter have soared more than 60 times since the MY 2018/19.
Smaller quantities of Moroccan berries were also exported to Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, and Oman.
