According to data prepared by Hortoinfo from the statistical services Comtrade, the Statistics Division of the United Nations Organization (UN), and Estacom (Icex-Tax Agency), Morocco's watermelon is displacing Almeria's product in the European markets. In 2020, the Morrocan product already surpassed Almeria's product in the French and Dutch markets.
Between 2016 and 2020, Almeria has increased its watermelon exports by 32.33% while Moroccan exports grew by 204.1%. Almeria exporters sold 323.27 million kilos of watermelon abroad in 2016 and 427.78 million kilos in 2020. Meanwhile, Moroccan watermelon exports went from 79.56 million kilos in 2016 to 241.94 million kilos in 2020.
The German watermelon market remains faithful to its suppliers from Almeria, as its purchases increased from 152.61 million kilos in 2016 to 188.8 million kilos in 2020. German purchases of Moroccan watermelon went from 1.33 million kilos in 2016 to 5.31 million kilos in 2020.
French purchases from Almeria went from 44.35 million kilos in 2016 to 63.35 million kilos in 2020. In the same period of time, Moroccan watermelon sales increased from 26.43 million kilos to 87.78 million kilos.
Morocco's watermelon also surpassed Almeria's product in the Netherlands. Between 2016 and 2020, Almeria decreased its watermelon exports to the Netherlands slightly, going from 25.72 million kilos to 25.65 million. In the same period, Dutch imports of the Moroccan product went from 5.87 million kilos to 26.96 million kilos.
Spanish imports of Moroccan watermelon increased by 255.48% between 2016 and 2020, going from 21.97 million kilos to 78.01 million kilos. This means Spain is the second biggest customer for Moroccan watermelons after France.
Source: hortoinfo.es