French truck drivers' strike affecting Moroccan exports

Moroccan producers said that the truck drivers strike in France affected Moroccan exports of fruit and vegetables negatively. Moroccan exports of fruit and vegetables are expected to reach 950 million tons in 1997/8, 700 million of which are citron exports.

The Citron Producers Association expressed its relief that the strike started at a time when the Moroccan exports are weak, thus the strike did not have a great effect on the citron exports. The exporters of citron use the trucks only to export 10% of their total exports in addition to the fact that the Moroccan exports at this time are sent to Canada and the Eastern and Scandinavian countries.

Moroccan exports of vegetables faced problems last week as 1500 trucks carrying vegetables and 400 trucks carrying fruit were stopped. Moroccan exporters managed to release the trucks in coordination with European shipping companies.