Morocco’s phosphates and fertilizers producer OCP said its revenue in the first six months rose 72% to a record 56 billion dirhams at a context of higher demand and higher prices in the international market.
Fertilizers prices rose in the first half of this year due to supply disruption resulting from the war in Ukraine and the decrease in China’s exports, OCP said in a statement.
Morocco’s trade balance continues to benefit from higher prices of phosphates and derivatives with sales up 81% to 68.7 billion dirhams by July, the foreign exchange office said.
Morocco, which has the world’s largest phosphates reserves, has positioned itself as a major fertilizer producer expanding its market share in the wake of the export restrictions imposed by other major producers such as Russia.
In these challenging supply conditions, Morocco’s OCP has offered African countries 550,000 tons of fertilizers, of which 180,000 tons took the form of a donation and 370,000 to be sold at discounted prices.
Prior to this fertilizers relief program by the OCP, which will amount to 16% of Africa’s fertilizers needs this year, Morocco made sure to dedicate 20% of its fertilizers exports to Africa although it could have shifted such quantities to Brazil or Asia where customers are willing to pay a higher price.
OCP is also investing to increase the production capacity of key African countries in order to reduce their dependence upon imports. OCP is investing $8 billion to build huge factories that will supply local as well as regional markets in Nigeria and Ethiopia, with particular focus on Nigeria and Ethiopia.
Source: north africa post
