OCP to inaugurate a phosphate fertilizer plant in Brazil

OCP Group is set to invest in Brazil by inaugurating a new phosphate fertilizer plant, announced Brazil’s Agriculture Minister on Twitter earlier this week.

This move came after a meeting was held in OCP’s headquarters in Rabat, which was attended by members of this official mission, including OCP CEO Mostafa Terrab, Brazil’s Agriculture Minister, Livestock and Food Supply (MAPA), Marcos Montes, and the Brazilian agricultural attache in Rabat, Nilson Guimarãe.

The Brazilian Minister of Agriculture stressed that his country “seeks to encourage foreign investors to produce fertilizers while encouraging local production at the same time,” revealing that “the visit was supposed to take place last month, but was postponed until after Ramadan.”

Morocco, the third supplier of fertilizers to Brazil after Russia and Belarus, along with other countries such as Qatar, Egypt, and Oman, provides 26% of the fertilizers imported by the Latin American country, which wants to compensate for the recorded decline in its imports of this substance after the outbreak of the conflict in Eastern Europe.

Global demand for Moroccan phosphate rose in light of the repercussions of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis after Russia’s exports of this substance were affected by Western sanctions.

At the end of March 2022, Morocco’s phosphates fertilizers and derivatives exports have almost doubled reaching MAD 24.54 billion, up compared to MAD 13.43 billion recorded last year, according to the exchange office.

Several countries around the world suspended their trade relations with Russia as well as temporarily closed their services, as part of imposed sanctions in support of Ukraine.

The prices of fertilizers have more than doubled in Morocco, reaching (MAD 7,319 / T) at the end of March 2022, up compared to (MAD 3,116 / T ) in the same period of 2021, specified the Office in its recent note on the monthly indicators of foreign trade, while exported quantities dropped by 17.8%.