Morocco

Morocco was the World’s 2nd largest supplier of phosphate after China in 2015 producing 40 MT of phosphate rock. The phosphate industry is important in Morocco and one of their main sources of income. The OEC report lists Morocco as exporting $1.76B worth of Chemical Fertilizers and $1.49 billion worth of Phosphoric Acid in 2014. According to Investing News “the world’s phosphate rock production is expected to increase, rising from 223 Mt in 2015 up to 255 Mt in 2019. Most of the increase will likely come from the expansion of existing mines in Morocco and the development of a new mine in Saudi Arabia.”

Phosphate has a wide variety of uses and can be found in cleaning detergents, nutritional supplements, personal care products and are the main ingredient used in crop fertilizers which is a huge and lucrative industry as arable land diminishes around the world.

Phosphate has been in the news recently for a number of reasons both good and bad. Phosphate has a bad reputation for being a pollutant in the environment causing an overgrowth of algae in waterways. Proctor and Gamble (P&G) has just recently pledged to have the chemical removed from their Fairy Brand of dishwasher tablets by 2017 which according to them will save the use of 14,000 t/y of phosphates. This positive change on the part of P&G will more than comply with recent legislation from the European Commission stating that all detergents must contain no more than 0.5g/dose. This legislation will be in enacted from 1st January 2017.

In other news, phosphate demand is set to increase in 2016 according to Agrimoney. Agrimoney have reported that AgroPhos representative Andrey Guryyev has said that “Interest rate subsidies are now in place, and we saw phosphate-based fertilizer imports increase by more than 30% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2016”.

Morocco is one of Africa’s richest countries and its economy has been growing by 4% annually. Morocco is pro business and encourages foreign direct investment in many sectors. Setting up a business there can be completed in 10 days with just 4 procedures according to the World Bank Ease of doing business report 2016. Additionally there is no paid in minimum capital required. The report ranks Morocco at 75 out of 189 economies in ease of doing business up by 5 points since 2015. Morocco also scores well under the World Heritage’s Economic Freedom Index being classified as moderately free.

Healy Consultants Group have been helping investors set up in Morocco for 10+ years.

Useful Links
https://www.healyconsultants.com/morocco-company-registration/
https://www.state.gov/e/eb/rls/othr/ics/2015/241672.htm
https://investingnews.com/daily/resource-investing/agriculture-investing/phosphate-investing/top-phosphate-producing-countries/
https://www.tcetoday.com/latest%20news/2016/june/p-and-g-to-remove-phosphate-from-cleaning-tablets.aspx#.V1jylVR9670
https://investingnews.com/daily/resource-investing/agriculture-investing/phosphate-investing/phosphate-demand-to-rise-globally-in-2016/

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