PREVIEW
A $450 million Louisiana fertiliser plant suggests OCP's lobbying has paid off. Washington now sees phosphate as strategic, not just commercial
The deal between OCP North America and CHS Inc., the largest farmer-owned cooperative in the United States, to build a phosphate fertiliser plant in the southern US state of Louisiana, is the latest commercial and diplomatic victory for Rabat (AC Vol 67 No 14, Guns for fertiliser).
The facility, costing some US$450 million, will be the first of its kind constructed in the US since 1984. It shows the turnaround in relations between Rabat and Washington since the start of the second Donald J Trump administration in January 2025. Back then the parastatal OCP, closely linked to King Mohammed VI, faced hefty tariffs on fertiliser exports to the US imposed by Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden in 2024 (AC Vol 66 No 17, Arms, gas and fertiliser – Rabat outflanks Algiers with a Trump-linked lobbyist).
In July, the Trump White House declared an ‘emergency’ on fertiliser supplies to US farmers, stating that tariffs on Moroccan fertiliser would be lifted for eight months or until Trump ends the ‘emergency’. That suspension may now be permanent.
The OCP/CHS factory is meant to reduce US dependence on imported phosphate-based fertilisers by more than 48%. It currently imports about 40% of the phosphate-based fertilizers its farmers need.
It makes commercial and political sense. Morocco has been promoting more phosphate fertiliser exports to push down food costs in the US for several years (Dispatches, 20/4/26, State-owned fertiliser giant OCP rethinks market strategy after Gulf crisis). It was clear at the launch, attended by US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and Louisiana’s Republican party Governor Jeff Landry, that it has Trump’s full support.
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