Italian ports are attempting to thwart the crisis hitting the sector with full force by opening new maritime routes, notably to North Africa. Now is the time for partnerships, especially with Algeria.

A contrasting picture for trans-Mediterranean Ro-Ro. East-west routes are developing positively but traffic between Europe and North Africa is decreasing.

Marc Grolleau, CEO of Transcargo, which operates in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, and chairman of the AFTRI (French International Road Transport Association), is fighting for the creation of a Ro-Ro link between Marseille and the Moroccan port of Tangier, a project that for him “spells the future”.

Foreign shipowners complain about dire waiting times in the port of Mostaganem, which has led to a significant fall in cargo volumes imported by Ro-Ro. Even though the average wait at the port of Oran is 4 hours, the specialisation of Algerian ports is a problem for foreign operators.

Julio Martínez Alarcón has coordinated a comparative study of Ro-Ro (roll on/roll off) and LoLo (lift on/lift off) operating systems. The exhaustive study was carried out for FEPORTS (Port Institute for Studies and Cooperation in the Valencian Region). The report was produced with the support of the European Community as part of the Terconmed project.

ITALY. Strength through union! Tomato producers in Pachino, Sicily, put this motto into practice when they launched the Aurora cooperative in the 1970s. For the last twelve years it has enabled them to penetrate export markets.

SPAIN. The Spanish citrus sector is still very competitive internationally, although competition from countries such as Egypt is being more acutely felt, mainly because of the difficulty in finding alternative logistics to road transport.

An example of the sharing of resources in Morocco's citrus and early fruit and vegetable sector.

What view do the retailers and wholesalers of Rungis International Market take of the downstream sharing of the means of transporting fruit and vegetables? In a sector ruled by intense competition, individual interests take precedence, even if it means trucks travelling half empty!

In the space of a few years, Egypt has made a quantum leap, both qualitatively and quantitatively, in the citrus fruit sector. This leap places it alongside Spain and Turkey on the podium of top orange producers and exporters, not only in the Mediterranean, but also in the world market.

MOROCCO. In 2012, climatic vagaries caused a fall in small fruit exports. As regards oranges, the decline is more structural. For a number of years now, Morocco has lagged behind Egypt.

In recent years, citrus growers in the Mediterranean basin have been waging a relentless war on export markets. The price of labour, export subsidies, fruit quality, bilateral trade agreements, transport and logistics costs, there are no holds barred.