AFP, published Sunday 04 December 2022 at 13:24
Morocco, Africa’s top exporter of phosphates, is using its prime natural resource to garner diplomatic support for its position on the crucial Western Sahara issue, analysts say.
For the second year in a row, the kingdom posted record earnings thanks to phosphate exports and benefited from rising prices of this mineral, essential to Africa’s food security since the disruptions related to the war in Ukraine, a Russian-occupied country.
“It is a strategic mineral because it is vital to global food security,” Abderrahim Handouf, an agricultural policy specialist, told AFP. With population growth, fertilizers are “the most effective way to increase agricultural productivity,” he says.
Morocco is the second largest phosphate producer in the world after China and has 70% of the world reserves.
Phosphate rock has been mined in Morocco since 1921, as well as in Western Sahara, which accounts for 8% of national production. Rabat controls nearly 80% of the Sahara, a former Spanish colony.
According to the Cherifian Phosphate Office (OCP), the public company that holds the monopoly for its exploitation, Morocco represents 31% of the world phosphate market.
OCP is expected to post sales of more than 130 billion dirhams (about 11.5 billion euros) in 2022, which represents an increase of 56% in one year.
– “Geopolitical Tensions” –
Fertilizer prices, of which Russia is the world’s largest exporter, have skyrocketed due to Western sanctions against Moscow and soaring prices for natural gas, which is essential to their production.
But even before February’s invasion of Ukraine, the surge in prices was being fueled by the post-Covid-19 pandemic demand explosion, Chinese-imposed export restrictions and the needs of India, a major global importer that had depleted its inventories. says Mounir Halim, an expert in the industry.
OCP has quadrupled its production capacity to 12 million tons annually between 2008 and 2021 and is targeting 15 million tons by the end of 2023.
“In order to supply all of its industrial tools with +green energy by 2027” and achieve carbon neutrality before 2040, the group presented an investment plan of 11.5 billion euros on Saturday.
According to the Foreign Exchange Office, Morocco increased its phosphate exports by 66% in a year at the end of September to a value of more than 8.5 billion euros.
But international production remains limited and “geopolitical tensions could lead to new supply shortages in the short term,” the UN Food and Agriculture Organization noted.
– “profit joker” –
In this context, phosphate has become an instrument of Morocco’s determination to settle in its favor the endless conflict in Western Sahara that confronts it with the Sahrawi separatists of the Algerian-backed Polisario Front.
Fertilizers are the “joker winner of Moroccan diplomacy” while the OCP has become its “economic arm”, the local press analyzes.
According to media reports, Morocco has recalled a shipment of 50,000 tons of fertilizers destined for Peru after that country restored its ties with the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic from the separatists.
“Morocco is using its economic weapons in a pragmatic way,” says Tajeddine El Husseini, a professor of international relations, acknowledging that they can have “political clout.”
Being courted by Brazil and Japan, OCP is increasing its international presence, particularly on the African continent, where it is present in 16 countries and has 12 subsidiaries.
He inaugurated a fertilizer blending plant in Nigeria and signed a contract to build another in Ethiopia.
The public giant plans to provide 4 million tons of fertilizer “to support food security in Africa” in 2023. And this after exporting 500,000 tons of phosphates to African countries this year, either free of charge or at preferential prices.
“For several years, Morocco has launched economic cooperation projects with several African countries, particularly those hostile to it on the Sahara issue,” said political commentator Naoufal Bouamri.
“It’s a way to draw closer together and maybe get these countries to change their position in the future.”