Moroccan fertilizer giant OCP plans to expand its structure in Brazil by opening four new storage sites. Warehouses will be opened in Goiás, Minas Gerais, Pará and Santa Catarina in 2020, according to information from OCP CEO Brazil, Olavio Takenaka, released by the Brazil-Arab News Agency.
OCP has been present in Brazil since 2010 and has branches in Paranaguá (Paraná), Rio Grande and Itaqui (Rio Grande do Sul), Rondonópolis (Mato Grosso) and Aratu (Bahia), and two offices in the state capital. The warehouses receive phosphate imported from Morocco and from them, the product reaches the company’s customers, who are mixers and fertilizer distributors. In addition to the units that will open in 2020, the company should inaugurate others in 2021, according to Takenaka.
“We internalize everything for our customers to have our products just in time on his factory side,” said Takenaka. All phosphate that OCP sells in Brazil is imported from Morocco. “We have a line of more than 50 different products, but all based on phosphate”, explains the CEO of OCP do Brasil.
OCP is the largest supplier of phosphorus in Brazil, with a 40% share of Brazilian imports, according to Takenaka. The group has the largest phosphate reserve in the world, sufficient for 500 years of use, and has been investing to increase production in Morocco to meet demands around the globe.
Strong performance in Brazil
The Moroccan group has investments in a Brazilian fertilizer company, Heringer, which is in bankruptcy, but Takenaka does not talk about possible new purchases of assets in Brazil. At Heringer the stake is 10%. According to the CEO, OCP has a large investment plan in Morocco of over $ 20 billion. “To increase production in Morocco and supply the world,” he says.
Takenaka states that Brazil depends on fertilizers due to its poor soil and that this supply supports the agribusiness export platform, currently at $ 100 billion a year. “Without fertilizers, (Brazil) would not have this protagonism, this strength,” he says. “We have the soil, we have water, the sun that is abundant in the tropics more than in the Northern Hemisphere. We have technology, a very advanced production system for the world, but our soil is poor, ”he says.
According to Takenaka, OCP intends to be present in all Brazilian states significant for agriculture, livestock and liquid fertilizers, to market fertilizer products, to feed chickens, pigs and cattle. “Brazil has been one of the biggest growths in fertilizer consumption in the world for decades and will continue to be,” I say.
Data released by the Investor Relations area of the OCP Group website show that the company had global revenues of $ 2.87 billion in the first half of this year, up from $ 2.86 billion in the same period of 2018. Demand overall remained healthy, according to the financial report. Gross profit was $ 1.85 billion, compared to $ 1.83 billion in the same comparison, reflecting higher revenues and falling raw material prices.
+ Olavio Takenaka attended this Wednesday (13) of the Forum Africa Africa 2019, to accompany the participation of the senior vice president of OCP for East Africa, Fayçal Benameuri, as a panelist.
With information from the Brazil-Arab News Agency (ANBA)