Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation George Chaponda says the Moroccan Government’s plans to construct a fertiliser manufacturing plant in Malawi for domestic and regional markets is part of a package to the country.
The minister made the announcement in a statement after a bilateral meeting with his Moroccan counterpart Nasser Bourita in Rabat, Morocco.
The fertiliser plant comes months after the Government of Malawi approved the use of OCP Group fertilisers produced by Morocco’s main fertiliser company.
Said Chaponda: “The Government of the Kingdom of Morocco has committed to a wide-ranging package of support that will directly benefit our people at this critical time. “
He described the fertiliser plant as a transformative project that will help to produce fertilisers for both local distribution and the regional market.
Said Chaponda: “This transformative investment will reduce reliance on imports, stabilise prices and strengthen Malawi’s position as a regional agricultural hub.
“These commitments align perfectly with our Government’s priorities under the four Fs; food security, fertiliser, fuel, foreign exchange, plus medicines.”
Morocco Nasser Bourita is quoted as having said that the fertiliser plant will revolutionalise the Malawi’s agriculture sector.
The approval of OCP Group fertilisers paved the way for the Moroccan firm to not only bring the product in Malawi, but also localise its production.
The Morocan firm manufactured fertilisers were approved after year-long efficacy evaluation trials facilitated by the three government ministries, namely Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Industrialisation, Business, Trade and Tourism in collaboration with local and Moroccan scientists.
In an interview on Tuesday, National Commission for Science and Technology director general Gift Kadzamira confirmed that the two Moroccan phosphate fertilisers were approved.
Ministry of Industrialisaton, Business, Trade and Tourism spokesperson Patrick Botha described the milestone as key to the government’s import substitution push as the country annually spends an average of $300 million (about K525 billion) to import fertilisers.
““Our interest for now is the benefits such localised production would bring to the economy, especially on import substitution and trade balance issues,” he said.
In an interview on Tuesday, agricultural development policy expert Tamani Nkhono Mvula described the development as positive, considering that logistical costs contribute to Malawi’s high prices of fertilisers as the commodity is imported from east Asia or Middle East.
“This is very important for an agro-based economy such as Malawi that cannot do without fertilisers,” he said.
Meanwhile, OCP Nutricrops, a subsidiary of OCP Group and a producer of phosphate fertilisers, has announced a major investment to increase its fertiliser production capacity by nine million metric tonnes by 2028.
The OCP Group, previously known as Office Chérifien des Phosphates, is Morocco’s largest State-owned phosphate miner and one of the major producers of fertilisers globally.
Malawi requires about 500 000MT of fertilisers annually for Farm Input Subsidy Programme and independent farmers, according to Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development data.
