Abdallah Boano, head of the Parliamentary Group for Justice and Development, urged the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries to reveal the truth about the purchase of tomatoes in the domestic market and divert them for export, as well as data on the export of Moroccan tomatoes to international markets. and their planning from the moment the decision to stop exports is made.
In a written question to the Minister of Agriculture, the head of the Al-Bijidi group called for disclosure of measures that the Ministry of Agriculture will take to reduce prices for tomatoes and other vegetables and fruits on the domestic market.
The above question referred to the data disclosed by the correspondent of the vegetable and fruit professional associations in the Souss-Massa region, who decided to withdraw from the committee set up by the Ministry of Agriculture, Marine Fisheries, Rural Development, Water Resources and Forests, to manage the problem of supplying the domestic market with tomatoes, registering this in her correspondence, which she sent to the Minister of Agriculture, for which she considered an exception. administrators with unilateral decisions manage the crisis in a way that has nothing to do with the realities of the industry and turn a blind eye to the instructions of the Minister of Agriculture not to buy tomatoes on the domestic market to export them, in the words of a letter signed by the Abvil and Ishtuka Producers associations ”, “Amsvill” and “Amkom”.
The professional associations recorded, according to the group president’s question, that “the domestic tomato market has reached a ‘catastrophic’ situation and that there is no vision in managing the export of Moroccan tomatoes to international markets, emphasizing that the committee that was the institution met only three times, and did not respond to requests for its convening by specialists, and they were not provided with the necessary documents that would allow them to track the position of tomatoes on the national market and track real export data.
According to the same source, a communication from fruit and vegetable professional associations indicated that tomatoes would continue to be purchased domestically and re-exported under administration control without taking any action to stop or restrict the purchase after the Minister of Agriculture prevented the export process in these difficult circumstances, emphasizing that his exclusion does not express any appreciation or recognition of the professionals for their efforts and sacrifices.
Boano considered that these data, disclosed in the letter of the vegetable and fruit professional associations, will have a negative impact on the prices of tomatoes in the domestic market, as many cities recorded their increase to 14 dirhams, urging the minister to bring to light “the fact that the work of the committee, mentioned in the letter of professional associations, stopped” vegetables and fruits in the Souss-Massa region.
