Moroccan Fertilizer Giant OCP Eyes Punjab as DAP Sales Collapse

LAHORE: Morocco's state-owned OCP Group held talks with Punjab's agriculture minister on Thursday on fertilizers tailored to the province's soils, as Pakistani farmers cut back sharply on phosphate ahead of the wheat season.

An OCP delegation met Syed Ashiq Hussain Kirmani at his Lahore office to discuss soil health and balanced fertilizer use. The two sides went over the nutrient needs of wheat, rice and cotton, three of Punjab's major crops.

The meeting comes at a weak moment for phosphate demand. DAP sales fell 39 percent year on year to about 59,000 tonnes in September, brokerage estimates show. Sales for the first nine months stand at 756,000 tonnes, down 5 percent.

Wheat sowing, which usually lifts DAP buying, begins within weeks.

One bag no longer fits all

The pitch centres on customisation. Most growers apply much the same fertilizer mix, whatever the soil underneath. OCP argues for the reverse. Test first. Work out what the crop needs. Then mix for that.

The company has run that model at scale elsewhere. It has developed more than 40 customised fertilizer formulas, according to the European Sustainable Phosphorus Platform. Its African arm says it has reached more than 2 million farmers through customisation, soil mapping and field trials. In 2023, OCP signed agreements with Indian manufacturers to offer tailor-made fertilizers to Indian farmers.

Punjab already has the testing vans

Kirmani made clear where Punjab's interest lies. Applying fertilizer in line with what each crop needs, he said, holds the key to higher per-acre yields. Punjab would benefit from OCP's experience in soil health, he added.

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The province already has one piece on the road. On the chief minister's directions, Punjab now takes soil testing to farmers' doorsteps through its Labs on Wheels initiative, Kirmani said. Agriculture Secretary Shakeel Ahmad Mian called soil health one of the department's top priorities and credited the programme with pushing more balanced, scientific fertilizer use.

Here's where the two fit. Punjab's vans can already tell a grower what his field is short of. A custom blend would give him something to do with that answer.

Talks move into the lab

The engagement did not stop at the minister's office. On September 30, an OCP team led by Siham Jabrane, marketing director of the group's Customization Business Unit, visited the Punjab Agriculture, Food and Drug Authority (PAFDA), according to the authority. The visitors walked through PAFDA's laboratories first. Talk then turned to working together on fertilizer quality checks, lab testing and food safety.

That second stop matters more than it looks. A custom blend only helps if someone can prove what's actually inside the bag.

An old Fauji link

OCP does not arrive as a stranger. Its money already sits alongside Fauji's in Pakistan Maroc Phosphore, the phosphoric acid plant at Jorf Lasfar in Morocco that feeds raw material to fertilizer makers back home.

Back in July, Islamabad and Rabat had already agreed to deepen farm ties, from trade and livestock to technical know-how, the Ministry of National Food Security said.

Wheat sets the clock

For Kirmani, wheat comes first. It's Punjab's biggest crop, he said, and keeping fertilizer available for the next harvest tops his list. Nobody signed anything on Thursday. No agreement, no timeline, no pilot.

That leaves the real question open. Shipping more phosphate into Pakistan would change little. Matching the right blend to the right field is a harder, bigger idea, and Punjab has not yet said how far it wants to take it.