Premiumisation ‘key’ to Moroccan tomato sector’s future

Changing market preferences, the best approach to ToBRFV, and lessons from Mexico’s tomato sector were among the key talking points at the sixth Morocco Tomato Conference in Agadir earlier this year.

The congress on 21 May came on the back of news that Morocco had consolidated its lead over Spain as the world’s third-largest exporter of fresh tomatoes in 2025, behind only Mexico and the Netherlands, according to UN Comtrade data.

The main takeaways from the conference for Morocco’s tomato industry were that:

• The European tomato market is shifting towards a greater focus on taste, freshness, and smaller segments. To protect margins, Moroccan producers must focus on premiumisation and varietal specialisation.
• There is no silver bullet to tackle ToBRFV, but strict operational discipline works. The future of virus prevention depends on transparent data-sharing and standardised sanitary protocols.
• Mexico’s tomato sector has a great balance between high-tech investment and yield optimisation. To boost competitiveness, Morocco must also embrace advanced technologies and adapt them to its local climate.
• Recent unusual rainfall in the Agadir region proves that technical agility, such as humidity control and shelter management, is now a must to secure production.
• And with labour becoming scarce, the tomato sector must collaborate with other sectors such as the berry industry to build cross-industry strategies for training and workforce retention.

Export markets

When it comes to exports, a round table on whether Morocco should rethink its tomato markets saw contributions from Ali Rougui of Morocco Foodex, Wilco van den Berg from Fresh Produce Centre, and the former director of the European Commission, John Alistair Clarke.

It was agreed that standard round and cherry tomatoes are losing ground in Germany and Netherlands, with the EU market shifting rapidly towards premium segments. Morocco must therefore pivot from mass commodity production and target high-end quality.

Market diversification “will not happen organically”, the round table pointed out, and instead requires a deliberate, structured national policy and direct government support to help growers absorb the risks involved in entering new regions.

In addition, export competition from Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt is increasing, driven by significantly lower production costs.

EU-Morocco trade relations

Regarding trade with the European Union, Clarke examined the prospects for Morocco’s agricultural trade with the EU over the next decade.

Among other things, he stressed that Morocco must make major efforts to ensure its production methods (pesticide use, animal welfare standards, water usage, climate footprint etc.) fully meet EU standards, thus giving European regulators no reason to restrict imports.

The Moroccan government and financial institutions should redouble efforts to encourage European investment into agricultural sector, he added, positioning Morocco as a reliable strategic partner for Europe.

And given the political uncertainties facing both Morocco and Europe, Morocco should follow the example of other countries and diversify its markets to avoid being wholly reliant on Europe.

ToBRFV

Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit Virus (ToBRFV) was, unsurprisingly, another key topic of discussion, with insights from scientists, seed companies, growers and regulators. Speakers concluded that the virus cannot be controlled by genetics alone. Instead, success depends on combining resistant genetics, strict biosecurity and well-trained teams.

Preventing the spread of ToBRFV starts with management, it was agreed, with operational discipline, workforce training, standardised protocols and shared data emphasised as priorities.

Disease pressure

With climate change front of mind, Paolo Battisel – who co-founded Ceres, a leading provider of coco peat substrates to Morocco’s tomato producers – gave an in-depth presentation on managing crops in rainy conditions.

The 2025–2026 tomato season in Agadir presented an unprecedented challenge: instead of chronic drought, growers faced persistent and intense rainfalls between January and March 2026.

This created the ideal conditions for fungal diseases, with four dominating – mildew (late blight), botrytis, cladosporium, and powdery mildew – and each requiring distinct prevention strategies.

Battisel concluded that success depends on three integrated principles:

• Real-time climate monitoring, using dew point and relative humidity trends to predict diseases before symptoms.
• Preventive fungicide strategies with active resistance management.
• Precise irrigation management to reduce canopy humidity and substrate saturation.

Labour shortages

Earlier in the day, a panel on how Moroccan agriculture can solve its labour shortage highlighted that 64 per cent of Morocco’s population now lives in urban areas. As rural communities shrink, the farming sector is struggling to secure the workforce needed to sustain its growth.

To attract more workers to the tomato sector, producers should move beyond Morocco’s minimum wage for agricultural workers (SMAG) towards living wages. Other approaches suggested by the panel included modernising labour regulations to be able to deal with harvest peaks, creating shared regional HR groups across agricultural sectors, and investing in worker housing and local infrastructure.

Ultimately, mechanisation, continuous training and better working conditions will determine the competitiveness of Moroccan agriculture, according to the panel – which included Otman El Qacemi of Driscoll’s Morocco, Kamal Macha-Allah of Maisadour Maroc, and Esserrhini Laraisse from the Moroccan Association of Fruit and Vegetable Exporting Producers (Apefel).

The speakers also stressed that greater productivity and efficiency, not simply more workers, are key. In Morocco, around 18-20 workers are needed per hectare, compared to 7-8 workers in Mexico.

Lessons from Mexico

Finally, a round table on what Morocco can learn from Mexico’s greenhouse tomato model highlighted the latter’s modern greenhouse structures, ultra-precise irrigation technology, strategic joint ventures, and integrated production and packing operations.

It was acknowledged that modern greenhouses require long-term investment, but that investment can be made possible through contract-based markets, strong producer organisations, and long-term supply chain partnerships.

Jorge Flores Velazquez of the Colegio de Postgraduados in Mexico summarised that the Mexican tomato industry relies on consistent quality and careful sorting, as well as efficient logistics, to serve both domestic and export markets, such as the US.

Morocco could also learn from Mexico by diversifying into more added-value products such as juices, sauces, purees and preserves, according to Velazquez. Such a strategy would strengthen resilience and long-term profitability by creating new revenue opportunities and reducing dependence on fresh market sales.