North Africa’s population is booming. It is also an arid zone and prone to drought. Morocco bore the brunt of a rain deficit in the past year, and poor harvests are widely predicted as a result.
“Water is definitely the issue … Wheat production will be reduced by 50% this year in Morocco,” says Philippe Cattan, DuPont Crop Protection business manager for Middle East and North Africa. Wheat is the country’s largest crop, followed by olives, tomatoes, barley and a variety of other fruits and vegetables. With 40% of the population employed in agriculture, a bad year for agriculture means the entire economy suffers.
Exports from Morocco and Tunisia, particularly of fresh tomatoes, are also taking a hit as Europe’s economic crisis cuts into demand for fresh fruit and vegetables. Tomato prices are down at the same time, hurting farmers in the region, Cattan says.
Dejando a un lado la disponibilidad de agua y los problemas económicos mundiales, en febrero se produjo una señal de progreso para el comercio. El Parlamento Europeo firmó el acuerdo agrícola entre la Unión Europea y Marruecos, según el cual la UE levantará inmediatamente sus aranceles actuales sobre el 55% de las importaciones de Marruecos. A su vez, 70% de productos agrícolas y pesqueros de la UE podrán ingresar a Marruecos libres de impuestos dentro de una década, con algunas excepciones.
Challenges facing the region’s crop protection markets are far from simple.
Addressing a recent workshop organized by the National Office for Food Safety (ONSSA) and FAO in Rabat recently, CropLife Morocco head Boubker El Ouilani said Morocco first and foremost must adopt a single framework to govern pesticides. “We must take into account the reality on the ground of inadequate infrastructure, lack of harmonization and coordination.” But he warned that “setting the bar too high could cripple the entire industry.”
Algeria “has huge potential – good land, plenty of water – but they lack skills, know-how and infrastructure for agriculture,” Cattan says.
Túnez está sembrando principalmente cereales y está comenzando a expandir sus hortalizas y producir cultivos, pero el país más septentrional del continente representa un mercado mucho más pequeño para la protección de cultivos que Marruecos o Argelia, agrega.
CropLife’s Said Abdella reports that Egypt – which is chiefly a pesticide importer – benefits from robust infrastructure and strong distribution and retail networks for crop protection products, but technical and commercial training is “badly needed.” According to Abdella, Egypt’s pesticide registration framework is one of the best in the region, and is modeled after those of the EPA, WHO, FAO and EU. “However, it needs more explanation and stability in order to be fully understood and observed by candidate pesticide dealers and manufacturing companies.”
Registered pesticide products are unsubsidized, and are charged a 5% customs duty and sales tax. Formed last July by new Minister of Agriculture Salah El-Sayed Youssef, Egypt’s Agricultural Pesticide Committee is charged with independently evaluating the efficacy, safety and performance of pesticides.
Threats to Egypt’s crop protection industry include “the invasion of unknown products where their sources or contents are not clear,” Abdella says, noting that Egypt also suffers from underinvestment in local industry and research and development, as well as shortages of equipment and the technical facilities and regulations to carry out quality control tests.