The persistent drought in Morocco has drastically reduced the demand for fruit plants. Driss Bouhri, a nurseryman based in Meknes, says: "Demand is in free fall year after year, and we still can't see the light at the end of the tunnel."
Bouhri, manager and owner of Pépinière Bouhri, adds: "Demand for fresh fruit plants has never been so low as this year. Growers in drought-affected regions are abandoning many crops, such as apples and table grapes, whose orders have dropped by almost 90% compared with a normal year. All fruits are affected, including table grapes, top fruit, and citrus. Overall, our sales in the fruit sector are down 80% on a normal year".
The nurseryman continues, "We're talking about the regions of the Oriental, Agadir, Marrakech, Errachidia, Doukkala... the demand from these regions for fruit plants has been downward for the last ten years."
According to Bouhri, growers, particularly small-scale farmers, have replaced their orders for fruit plants with other less water-intensive crops, notably olives and almonds, for which demand for plants has increased in recent years.
According to an earlier statement by the Moroccan Minister of Agriculture at the time, Mohamed Sadiki, the country's water reserves are sufficient to irrigate only 400,000 hectares for autumn and winter crops this season, compared with 800,000 hectares for an average year. With the exception of the Loukkos region (northwest of the country), all regions of Morocco are under constant and persistent water stress.
Despite recent rainfall over the past two months, Bouhri remains sober in his expectations: "The water table is exhausted, and there's hardly any snow. We need a lot of rainfall over several successive years to get the wheels of fruit production turning again".
For more information:
Driss Bouhri
Pépinière Bouhri
Tel: +212661073754
Email: [email protected]