According to COMTRADE data, between January and November 2021, the UK imported 24.14% fewer tomatoes from Spain than in the same period of the previous year. While over the same period, it has increased its tomato imports from Morocco by 33.68%, recording a significant shift in its tomato supply.
The United Kingdom imports more than 90% of its tomatoes from three main countries, the Netherlands, Morocco, and Spain. In 2020, Spain was the second-largest tomato supplier to the UK, accounting for 21.8% of the total import share, following the Netherlands, the leading supplier to the UK with 40% of the share. Morocco was the third-largest supplier of tomatoes to the UK with 18.5% of the import share.
For the first ten months of 2021, UK tomato imports from Spain totaled 60K mt, a 24% fall from the 79K mt imported in the same period the previous year. However, in those same months of 2020, UK tomato imports from Morocco totaled 97K mt, a 33.7% increase from the 73K mt imported in 2020. As a result, Morocco displaced Spain as the second-largest supplier to the UK and will account for an estimated share of 25%, leaving the Netherlands remaining as the lead supplier. However, Dutch tomato exports to the UK have also fallen by 18.62% totaling 116K mt, attributed to the increase in Moroccan imports.
Moroccan tomato exports to the UK have been in an upward trend since 2017, however, it wasn’t until 2020 when there was a notable increase in the preference for Moroccan origin. The same trend follows through the overall EU market, where imports of tomatoes from Morocco increased by 26% in the past five years. As a result, Moroccan tomato imports into the EU went from 344K mt in 2016 to 435K mt in 2020.
The increasing trend of Moroccan tomatoes in the UK has been strongly supported by the trade and political continuity agreement that both countries signed in October 2019. This continuity agreement was one of the first trade agreements that the UK signed after Brexit entered into place to secure the UK’s fresh market supply for consumers. As a result, trade between the two countries strengthened, particularly in the fruits and vegetable sector.
Another important event that has supported the increase of the Moroccan tomato in the UK was reported in late Oct-21 by Tridge’s Engagement Manager in Morocco, Essaid Elabayad. According to Elabayad, a new shipping route has started operating between the two countries. “A sea shipping route is about to operate between the Moroccan port of Tangier Med and the UK port of Poole. Many Moroccan tomato exporters are optimistic that they will expand their market in the UK, due to the short transit time of 4 days”, he concludes.