Spain and Morocco share a lot of things: they have excellent economic relations, they will organize the 2030 World Cup together and have lots of big projects in this direction, King Mohammed VI and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez have very strong links, etc. But the fact is that the two executives do not hold everything, do not control everything; sometimes their voices carry less than the interests of their fellow citizens, especially when it comes to markets as juicy as strawberries. After Moroccan tomatoes in France, it is the turn of the kingdom’s strawberries to be vilified in Spain…
“ The Moroccan strawberry sector is the victim of a Spanish defamation campaign,” asserted the president of the Moroccan Association of Red Fruit Producers, Amine Bennani. It’s been a week since Moroccan strawberries have come under heavy fire from Spanish producers, the fire which has a cost for a sector that weighs heavily on exports in Morocco.
Approached by the specialized media Fresh Plaza, Mr. Bennani tries not to make inflammatory statements so as not to embarrass His Majesty Mohammed VI, but he said things forcefully. He recounted how Spanish media hype was orchestrated to hit Moroccan agricultural products, going so far as to justify attacks on Spanish farmers.
The president of the Moroccan Association of Red Fruit Producers did not digest how the Spanish media quickly became inflamed by the so-called dangerousness of fruits and vegetables produced in Morocco. A discriminatory treatment when we know that daily the rapid alert system for human and animal food (RASFF) identifies different products coming from all countries, including those of the European Union. And the Spanish media don’t say a word about it. So why this relentless focus on Morocco?
Spanish farmers were seen pulverizing shipments of Moroccan fruits and vegetables, exulting in front of the cameras, but taking care to hide their faces to avoid legal action. All this with the complicity of local media. “As soon as the RASFF issued the notification, we saw how the Spanish media jumped on the issue and increased television broadcasts, protests, and even used the incident to justify previous attacks on Moroccan trucks “, Mr. Bennani said on Fresh Plaza.
“It is clear that the Moroccan strawberry sector is the victim of a Spanish defamation campaign. Given the speed with which this campaign is being orchestrated, one wonders if this is perhaps even premeditated,” he added. But he downplayed the effects of this campaign on the sector. “We continue to do business as always. Our customers continue to trust us and are perfectly aware of the rigor of the Moroccan authorities and the ONSSA,” he declared.
Furthermore, he affirmed that customers in Europe, the Gulf countries, and other countries “analyzed the shipments received last week and found no contamination,” reported the Moroccan newspaper Hespress yesterday Wednesday, March 13. Remember that on March 4, 2024, a note from the RASFF announced the presence of the hepatitis A virus in strawberries imported from Morocco. The Moroccan health authorities took to the front to energetically deny this.
Immediately the RASFF alert was “instrumentalized in a defamation campaign orchestrated against Moroccan producers,” declared the same source, which indicates that the ONSSA immediately identified the producer in question as well as the packaging factory. thanks to an infallible traceability system.
“The producer and the packing center underwent exhaustive sampling, which covered all phases of fruit handling, from sowing to irrigation, including greenhouses, inputs, and the packing center. All samples were negative, with no hepatitis A or norovirus,” said the president of the Moroccan Association of Red Fruit Producers.
“The ONSSA went further by imposing, from Wednesday, screening of all Moroccan production for traces of these viruses. Samples were taken from all farms and packaging centers, which were analyzed in the ONSSA laboratories,” he added. The results, which came back within 24 hours, revealed no trace of hepatitis A or norovirus…
So end of story? We must hope so, for Moroccan producers but also the future of relations between the two countries…
