Despite the unfavorable climatic conditions and a drought reaching a historic level, the avocado sector, which consumes a lot of water, had a record season. The major producer-exporters can be proud of this.
The avocado sector in Morocco has ended its campaign reaching 40,000 tonnes of production for this season. According to the FreshPlaza site, which quotes Abdellah Elyamlahi, CEO of Export Optimum, production has “close to a historic record”.
“Production at the national level has reached 40,000 tons, we have come close to a historic record for Moroccan avocado production, but we will surely reach it next season”, he said.
Despite the drought and the catastrophic situation of the dams in Morocco, the production of avocados, one of the fruits that consumes the most water, about 100,000 liters of irrigated water per day for each hectare, the CEO of the producing company affirmed that the objective will be to triple the production within 4 years.
Abdellah Elyamlahi had previously declared that Moroccan production was on the way to triple in 2027 to reach 100,000 tonnes and assured during this season that it gave “every reason to still believe in this prospect”.
Among the biggest buyers of avocados produced in Morocco are the Netherlands, France, Spain, the United Kingdom and Russia.
For this foreign demand, Abdellah Elyamlahi explained that there are two customer profiles: “Class A customers, who have stable orders, under export programs with fixed weekly prices, and +hot customers. spot+, which have fluctuating and often higher prices”.
In terms of prices, he revealed that the season was marked by a price lag. “The Moroccan avocado has been exported at an average price of 4 euros per kilo this season, whereas previously prices reached 5 or 5.5 euros per kilo.
“This price drop comes despite strong demand for Moroccan avocados and a general price increase,” he said, blaming speculative behavior among intermediaries “which drove prices down.”