Tunisia is seeking to double its phosphate output by 2024 to secure much needed revenue to boost its languishing economy and benefit from surging global fertilizer prices.
The country is targeting a phosphate rock production level of 8 million mt/y in the next two years, according to a Bloomberg report this week, citing Tunisian Mining and Energy Minister Neila Nouira Gongi in an interview on the sidelines of a mining conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. If achieved, this would raise Tunisian phosphate rock production to levels not seen since the country’s “Arab Spring” uprising more than 10 years ago.
State-run phosphate producer Compagnie des Phosphates de Gafsa (CPG) produced around 3.8 million mt of marketable phosphate rock in 2021, state news agency Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP) reported last week, citing an unnamed company source (GM Jan. 7, p.12). This week’s Bloomberg report put last year’s production at 3.9 million mt.
Tunisia is targeting output of 5 million mt this year from state-run operations, according to the Bloomberg report, and like nearby Morocco and Egypt, could potentially benefit from the ban on phosphate exports from China, which is pushing the Far Eastern nation’s usual customers to look elsewhere for supplies.
The minister said Tunisia is offering partnerships on phosphates with neighboring countries, with talks currently underway with Algeria on fertilizer projects, which “could be in the form of investments or exchanging experience,” she told Bloomberg.