Rabat – OCP group, from Morocco, will open a processing unit in Brazil to manufacture phosphate products. The announcement was made this Thursday (12) by the president and CEO of OCP, Mostafa Terrab, at a meeting in Rabat with the minister of Agriculture, Livestock, and Food Supply (MAPA) of Brazil, Marcos Montes, who is on an official mission to Morocco. Pictured above, Brazilian ambassador to Morocco, Julio Bitelli; Terrab, and Montes after the meeting.
In the meeting held at the OCP headquarters, also attended by part of the agribusiness delegation accompanying the mission, Terrab spoke on the Moroccan company’s plans to invest abroad and said it seeks Brazil. “Having a plant in Brazil would be very valuable,” said the executive. Terrab also stated the OCP is ready to prioritize the Brazilian market.
After the meeting, the president of OCP Fertilizantes in Brazil, Olavio Takenaka, told ANBA it would be the company’s first plant in Brazil; the products would be manufactured with phosphate rock imported from Morocco. “The project is in progress; we already have the land, six kilometers away from the Port of Itaqui,” he said. According to him, the engineering project is in its final stages for approval by the authorities.
The plant will be located in São Luís, the capital city of the state of Maranhão. “We are also planning a dicalcium phosphate plant for animal feed,” said Takenaka. The product is used as an input and source of phosphorus in animal feed. Brazilian cattle farming, which extends from the Mid-West to Northern regions of the country, side-by-side with national agriculture, was mentioned as the motivation for implementing the project by the executive.
The Brazilian minister of Agriculture is in Morocco to ensure there is no shortage of fertilizers in the Brazilian market. OCP is already a prominent supplier to Brazil, with its headquarters and operations in the country. OCP’s CEO was eager to expand business with Brazil. “We are ready to prioritize the Brazilian market,” he told the delegation.
Leader in phosphorus
OCP is a world-leading producer of phosphorus and its byproducts and detains 70% of global phosphorus reserves. The company’s president gave an overview of OCP’s history, which started operations in 1920 and initially focused solely on rock phosphate production. After its development process, it obtained the finished outputs. OCP produces from phosphoric acid to fertilizers such as MAP, TSP, DAP, NP, NPK, and nutrients for animal feed, among other products.
Mostafa Terrab spoke to the Brazilian minister about the responsibility of having one of the largest phosphate reserves in the world and making it available to the international community. Minister Marcos Montes told the executive Brazil also has a tremendous global responsibility, referring to the country’s role in food security.
The meeting was attended by the Brazilian ambassador to Morocco, Julio Bitelli; the agricultural attaché at the embassy, Nilson Guimarães; the president of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), Celso Moretti; and executives from the MAPA and the Secretariat of Strategic Affairs of Brazil; Organization of Brazilian Cooperatives (OCB), and Brazilian National Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock (CNA).
Translated by Elúsio Brasileiro
