The Minister of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Miguel Arias Cañete, presided on Friday in Casablanca, along with his Moroccan counterpart, the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries of the Kingdom of Morocco, Aziz Akhannouch, the second plenary meeting of the Spanish-Moroccan Committee of fruits and vegetables.
Senior representatives of the Spanish and Moroccan administration and the horticultural sector in both countries attended the meeting. Minister Arias Cañete stressed the social and economic importance of horticulture in Spain and Morocco.
Arias Cañete said that the first ten months of the Communications Committee (established in Madrid in December of last year) had been very positive and argued that by talking they would achieve a better planning and coordination, in view of the coincidence of production and marketing schedules in both countries, "in order to ensure adequate income for both Spanish and Moroccan producers and the European Union".
The Minister highlighted the creation of the Tomato Working Group within the Committee, as it is a very important product for Spanish producers. This group, which has met twice, is the appropriate setting so that the producers and governments of both countries can talk, in order to prevent crises in the horticultural markets, especially for tomatoes.
Arias Cañete also hopes that this dialogue will contribute positively to the development of this year's campaign, with offers ordered by operators, to avoid falling prices on the Community market. The minister is hopeful that the work of this Committee and, in particular, of the Tomato Working Group will yield good results in prices and farmers' incomes.
Regarding Moroccan export prices since December 2012, when the Committee was created, the campaign has developed normally and prices have been reasonable.
The development of the campaign in Spain, with the exception of the beginning of November, has been positive and export average prices have had good levels. Thus, the minister said that the average export price in the campaign has been around 1 €/kilo, 9% more than the average export price in the last season.
The Minister has considered it essential to continue progressing in this collaboration and rapprochement process between both countries by having meetings regularly and by starting new areas of collaboration, if the sector considers it appropriate, in order to seek benefits for farmers.
Source: Magrama