Morocco turns new page in produce history

摘要

As Morocco prepares to open its doors to foreign investment and free trade with the US for the first time, the citrus industry is facing some uncomfortable facts. FROM the air, much of Morocco resembles a dry riverbed. Periodically, the puckered brownlandscape smoothes out into a patchwork of beige and ochre fields, dotted with the odd spot of green. Surprising as it might seem, this parched country is a prolific horticultural producer, shipping some 500,000 tonnes of citrus (10 per cent of EU supplies) and 400,000 tonnes of vegetables (mainly tomatoes, but also green beans, peppers, courgettes and cucumbers) around the world each year.