The price of a kilo of Moroccan tomatoes nears 100 dirhams … in the Netherlands
A punnet of snack tomatoes from Morocco is being sold for the equivalent of nearly 100 dirhams per kilo in some stores in the Netherlands. In Morocco, the wholesale price of tomatoes did not exceed 4.50 dirhams on August 21 in Casablanca.
A major Dutch retailer sells its small snack tomatoes for 2.29 euros per 250-gram punnet. The regular price shown on the official Albert Heijn listing thus reaches 9.16 euros per kilo.
Converted at the current reference exchange rate of approximately 10.78 dirhams per euro, this price represents nearly 99 dirhams per kilo. A recent photograph of the punnet confirms the wording “Land van oorsprong: Marokko,” meaning “country of origin: Morocco.”
Albert Heijn nevertheless indicates that this same product may be sourced from Morocco, Belgium or Tunisia. The exact origin therefore depends on the batch available in each store.
On Bladi.net : article 97647
A promotion currently reduces the cost to three punnets for 5 euros. For 750 grams of Moroccan tomatoes, the kilo then comes to approximately 6.67 euros, or nearly 72 dirhams.
In Morocco, the difference is staggering. According to data from the Casablanca wholesale market published on August 21, tomatoes were trading between 1.20 and 4.50 dirhams per kilo. The Dutch price can therefore represent more than twenty times the maximum wholesale price recorded in Casablanca.
A striking comparison, but not of identical products
This difference does not correspond solely to the margin made on a tomato leaving Morocco. Casablanca prices are wholesale prices for ordinary tomatoes, whereas the Dutch product consists of small selected fruits, packaged in punnets and positioned as a snack product.
The contrast also appears with France. In Toulouse, dark round tomatoes imported from Morocco were sold for 1.89 euros per kilo in a Lidl store, or approximately 20 dirhams. The same origin can therefore be associated with a price ranging from one to five times as much, depending on the variety and the method of sale.
In the Netherlands, local tomatoes themselves have very different prices. Ordinary Dutch tomatoes cost approximately 3.58 euros per kilo, while premium cherry tomatoes produced in the country reach 11.96 euros, or nearly 129 dirhams.
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The price paid by the European consumer therefore does not correspond to the Moroccan producer’s remuneration. It includes transport, packaging, distribution and, above all, commercial positioning. This comparison nevertheless shows how a tomato grown in Morocco and sold for a few dirhams at the outset can become, once placed in a small punnet in the Netherlands, a product approaching 100 dirhams per kilo.