Tunisia:
State-run phosphate producerCompagnie des Phosphates de Gafsa (CPG) produced around 3.8 million mt of marketable phosphate rock in 2021, some 17 percent below the target set by the company, according to state news agency Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP), citing an unnamed company source.
The shortfall was due to “a difficult start in 2021 because of strikes and sit-ins and the suspension of extraction activities at the production units of Métlaoui, Mdhilla, Om Larayes, and Redeyef,” the TAP report said.
However, TAP reported that the quantities of phosphate shipped to Tunisian downstream phosphate producers – namely sister company Groupe Chimique Tunisien (GCT) and Tunisian-Indian Fertiliser Co. (TIFERT) – increased to 3.35 million mt in 2021, up from 2.32 million mt in 2020. TIFERT is a joint venture between GCT, CPG, and India’s Coromandel International Ltd. and Gujarat State Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd (GSFC).
Tunisian phosphate rock production in 2020 was 2.8 million mt, down from 4.3 million mt in 2019, according to TAP.