Morocco’s OCP maintains leadership in African fertilizers market

Morocco’s phosphate group OCP has shown resilience and agility amid the coronavirus crisis and is forging ahead to bolster its leadership position in the African fertilizers market.

The group maintains its fertilizers factories in Ghana, Nigeria and Ethiopia unchanged and expects to switch them on by 2024, the OCP told Reuters.

Nigeria plant in particular will produce up to 750,000 tons of ammonia and up to 1 million tons of fertilizers, while Ghana plant will produce 1 million tons of fertilizers.

The Ethiopian plant will be supplied by OCP to make fertilizers enough to supply the domestic market and export surplus, the agency said.

OCP has a market share in Africa of 58% of phosphates-based fertilizers and has offered training to 750,000 African farmers to help them move to larger production modes.

OCP investments in the continent are part of Morocco’s south-south cooperation approach that aims at addressing food security and developing agriculture in the continent.

It has also developed programs to map soils and customize fertilizers to different soils as well as easing access to such a vital ingredient for improving crop quality and quantity.