Mostafa Terrab, fertilizers at the service of Moroccan diplomacy

by time news

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Portrait of Mostafa Terrab, head of the Office Chérifien des Phosphates (OCP), the Moroccan fertilizer giant since 2006. A company which, in the current global fertilizer crisis, plays a key role for Africa in particular.

In October, Mostafa Terrab was the guest of honor of World Bank President David Malpass for a debate on the global fertilizer crisis. Mostafa Terrab has just promised to deliver to Africa, which is sorely lacking, four million tonnes of phosphate fertilizers in 2023. Enough to cover 80% of your needs, at preferential rates.

A political stunt and a publicity stunt at the same time, which does not surprise those who, like Pascal Airault, know this extraordinary boss, who arrived at the head of the Office Chérifien des Phosphates (OCP) in 2006: “ Mostafa Terrab has an impressive physique. He has a wrestler’s physique, a deep voice. He comes from a large family in Meknes. His grandfather was Mohamed Belarbi Alaoui, a figure of modernist Islam. And he embodies the modern boss. He walks with the Financial Time (British business daily, editor’s note) under the arm. He went through the Bechtel company (the first American public works company, Editor’s note) in the USA. He also worked at the World Bank. »

Read also : In Morocco, African fertilizer producers reflect on the future

Mohamed VI entrusts him with the mission of straightening a behemoth in bad shape. The OCP was then the cash cow of the Moroccan monarchy, an opaque and aging company. Mostafa Terrab, trained in France at the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), undertakes a Copernican revolution. Mounir Halim runs Afriqom, an information agency specializing in fertilizers. This physicist worked for three years with Mostafa Terrab: “ There is a change in culture, which I experienced at the time. You have to take responsibility. The decision must be made at the various levels of management. Certainly American style, but on the bright side, with action, with vision and follow-up and certainly creativity. »

In addition to communication campaigns focused on ecology and which also aim to counterbalance the image of an industry deemed polluting, Mostafa Terrab undertakes above all to make the first Moroccan company a profit machine. For this, the OCP becomes not only a supplier of raw phosphates, but also of fertilizers, quadrupling its production in thirteen years: ” When you sell a hundred dollar phosphate (per ton, Editor’s note) to a factory in Australia which will process it and sell it for 400 dollars, there is a margin which is captured by the person who processes the product, explains Mounir Halim, former director of sales in Europe of OCP. Mostafa Terrab dit “No! Why are we giving away our raw material?” He wants to capture the margin, and in addition, he becomes one of the largest producers and exporters in the market. We therefore find ourselves in a leading position on the pricing (pricing policy, editor’s note), on the strategy and therefore becomes a market influencer. »

Winning strategy

Transformed into a public limited company, publishing its results, the OCP seduces. This year, its turnover should exceed eleven billion euros. The group has also set out to conquer Africa. Following the political line set by the palace, Mostafa Terrab multiplies investments in the south: factories in Ethiopia, Nigeria, partnerships in Senegal and a dozen other countries.

The OCP of Mostafa Terrab is also a diplomatic instrument for Morocco in its policy towards Western Sahara. Pascal Airault adds: “ It is believed that by establishing commercial ties, very close economic ties with a certain number of countries on the continent which were inclined to maintain their political support for the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, one can hope after a certain time to obtain a attitude change. »

The OCP is a Moroccan economic arm under influence. Rabat thus recalled a cargo of 50,000 tons of fertilizer destined for Peru after Lima reestablished its relations with the Sahrawi separatists.

To listen also: Africa Economy – Can we compensate for the lack of fertilizers in Africa?

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