Morocco’s OCP aims to dominate phosphate industry

MARRAKESH, MOROCCO — It's hard not to be struck by the juxtaposition of tradition and progress when sitting in the back of a worn taxi cab winding its way through the maze-like confines of the medina quarter in the high-profile tourist destination of Marrakesh, Morocco. The sprawling, walled-off section of the city is an anachronistic call to the Berber markets and nomadic trading centres of the past, though it is now populated by European tour buses and flashy sports cars, en route to modern shopping malls and golf resorts. The medina is in many ways a microcosm of Morocco, with its clashes between the old ways and industrialism, the resulting political fallout. But make no mistake: the big money in the North African nation is in phosphate rock, which is why its state-owned fertilizer entity — Office Chérifien des Phosphates Group (OCP) — hosts a major conference every two years called the International Symposium on Innovation and Technology in the Phosphate Industry, or Symphos. Read the complete article at NorthernMiner.com/news/moroccos-ocp