OECD Observer No 296 Q3 2013

AFRICA’S CENTURY?

Business brief Therefore, improving the utilisation rate of fertilizer remains the major foundation of any agricultural strategy to increase agricultural productivity in Africa.

OCP: An industrial actor committed to a successful and sustainable agriculture in Africa

The group’s approach for the African market revolves around three axes: Learning Because the African market has its own characteristics, OCP has dedicated a team to work on these issues through meetings and dialogue with local distributors, government agencies and agricultural research institutes from several countries in Africa. In order to improve its knowledge of African agricultural characteristics, OCP Group sponsors and participates in international forums and conferences such as FMB Africa, AGRA Forum and IFA Africa Forum. Engagement To secure the supply of the continent, OCP dedicated production volumes to Africa regardless of the international application. Securing these volumes represents an investment of approximately $600 million for the construction of a specific unit on industrial platform group of “Jorf Lasfar”. Innovation OCP creates and commercialises new and innovative products that meet specific needs called Performance Phosphate Products (PPP). In addition to the integrated fertilizer solution “PPP- Direct Application: Teractiv”, OCP launched three types of PPP direct application, adapted to acid soils to meet the needs of three crops: cocoa, cotton and corn.

Discussing the results from agronomic tests of the Complex Fertilizers product in Ethiopia

A world leader in phosphates and its derivatives, OCP is strongly committed to contributing to a sustainable development of agriculture in Africa and to a real green revolution on the continent. Fertilizers are a key to improving productivity in Africa Fertilizers are vital components for the development of agriculture. In Africa, their judicious use can efficiently contribute to reversing the downward spiral of productivity. While Africa represents 18% of arable land in the world, the continent represents only 1% of the world fertilizer consumption, and that despite the development of high potential crops for export. OCP is a driving force for agricultural development in Africa OCP, a major player in global agriculture, is acting as the driving force to improve the process of agricultural productivity in Africa. With the largest reserves of phosphate in the world, a production of 28 million tonnes that will be increased to 50 million in 2020, and an expertise of nearly 50 years in the fertilizers field, OCP plans to invest more than US$15 billion over the decade 2010 to 2020. The group has major advantages to improve agricultural productivity on the African continent.

In recent years,OCP also launched an ambitious, innovative and high value-added programme to produce soil fertility maps in Morocco. This public and free tool is a database of geographic and scientific Moroccan soil, aiming to facilitate the establishment of a balanced and productive agriculture. OCP intends to capitalise on this experience to realise a similar tool for sub-Saharan Africa. Starting in 2012, OCP established innovative private-public partnership programmes in Morocco designed to engage the group, distributors and small farmers in a virtuous circle of value creation, bringing in the OCP Foundation. Finally, to disseminate the good agricultural practices and educate small farmers about the importance of the rational use of fertilisers, OCP has launched in 2012 a didactic concept: “The OCP caravan.” The OCP Cereals Caravan 2012 was presented in Dakar in March 2013, during the 4th edition of the FMB Africa conference.