Spain – Morocco: agri-food balance maintains a surplus of one billion euros

Exports of Moroccan agri-food products to the Spanish market continue to grow in value and volume. This trend has maintained a surplus of around 1 billion euros in favor of Morocco in agri-food trade between the two countries over the years. 

 The most recent data from the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture for the year 2022 show an increase in both the value and volume of Moroccan agri-food exports to the Spanish market. Spanish exports to Morocco have also increased in value due to higher prices, although the volume exported has fallen slightly. 

In 2022, Spanish agri-food exports to Morocco represented 1.6% of total world exports, while imports from Morocco accounted for 3.9% of total Spanish purchases. Morocco ranks twelfth among Spanish buyers and eighth among suppliers worldwide. 

 For Morocco, Spain remains its main market, accounting for 22.7% of exports, followed by France (16.7%) and the Netherlands (7.3%). However, Spain is only the fourth supplier to the Moroccan market, with a market share of 9.5%. France (18.4% of the total), Argentina (12.1%) and Brazil (11.4%) are in first place. 

 The Spanish products most exported to Morocco in terms of value are dominated by soybean oil, which far outstrips the other categories. On the Moroccan side, fruit and vegetables, in a variety of tariff categories, are the most imported into Spain. Tomato imports exceeded 100 million euros in value last year, with a cumulative increase of 31.5% in two years. 
 Tomatoes are the most imported Moroccan product in the European Union (EU). In 2022, agri-food trade between Morocco and the EU also generated a surplus in Morocco’s favor, reaching 618 million euros. However, this surplus was considerably down on the previous year (-63.9%), due to the sharp increase in the value of EU exports to the Moroccan market (4,252 million euros, +64.1% on 2021). 

 The EU mainly exports wheat, soybean oil and barley to Morocco, while the Moroccan product most exported to the EU is fresh and chilled tomatoes, which overtook molluscs on the list last year. In 2022, the value of tomato sales reached 824 million euros (compared with 604.3 million in 2021 and 529.8 million in 2020). This is followed by molluscs (792.2 million euros) and soft fruit, kiwis and persimmons (448.2 million).