Interviews

Mostafa Terrab is Chairman and CEO of the OCP Group, one of the world’s foremost miners and producers of phosphate-based fertilizers. Based in Morocco, OCP acts as the custodian for the country’s unrivaled phosphate supply, which accounts for approximately 75% of global reserves. Terrab begins the interview by discussing his upbringing and education in Morocco, where he attended French schools before pursuing an engineering degree at the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris. He continued his education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), obtaining an M.S. in 1982 before completing his PhD in Operations Research there in 1990. In addition to the degrees he obtained in the US, Terrab worked at the Bechtel Corporation in San Francisco and became a faculty member at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. Terrab later returned to Morocco, where in 1994 he became a junior advisor in King Hassan II’s Royal Cabinet. He also served as secretary-general of the Middle East/North Africa Economic Summit, an initiative hosted in Morocco which sought to consolidate peace in the Middle East through a series of conferences focused on economic cooperation and investment. Terrab explains that the summit fell apart following the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

In 1998, Terrab became Director General of Morocco’s National Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ANRT). He relates how over the course of the 1990’s, the country wanted to create competition in the telecommunications sector as part of its ongoing effort to support a market-based economy through private-sector investment. Morocco created the regulatory agency to facilitate private-sector investment in the telecom sector, functioning as the equivalent of the FCC in the US. Terrab shares the challenges of enlisting a competent staff, which he hired from a local university. His experience in the Moroccan telecom sector led to his role as a Lead Regulatory Specialist at the World Bank starting in 2002. Given the success of the ANRT in Morocco, he sought to introduce similar telecom regulatory agencies in countries such as Senegal and Ghana.

Following his time at the World Bank, in 2006 Terrab was appointed director-general of OCP (known at the time as Office Chérifien des Phosphates), a loss-making state-owned organization charged with mining phosphate rock. After conducting an analysis of its operations, Terrab determined that in order to become profitable, OCP would need to shift from solely selling phosphate rock to the production of fertilizers – the finished product. Part of accomplishing this goal involved corporatizing the company in 2008 so that it could run under corporate as opposed to administrative law. Terrab became the company’s Chairman of the Board and CEO, while the Moroccan government remained as OCP’s primary shareholder with 95% equity.

Terrab proceeds in the interview by outlining how OCP developed the capacity to transition from mostly a rock-mining company to a major fertilizer producer. In a few years, he explains how the company went from producing 2-3 to 12 million tons of fertilizer per year, and argues that this growth stemmed in large part from the decision to hire massively between 2006 to 2015, with an emphasis on hiring young people whom they could train in-house. Additionally, he promoted a change in mindset within the organization, replacing bureaucratic processes and a command and control management system with a focus on entrepreneurship. As the company expanded, Terrab decided to focus on the African fertilizer market where he states that average fertilizer use had remained one-tenth of the global average despite the need to increase agricultural production to match a rapidly growing population. In collaboration with local agronomic research institutions, the company developed customized fertilizer adapted to the environmental conditions of different African regions. He details how this ‘mass-customization’ approach has improved productivity while being cheaper and more environmentally friendly than standard fertilizer. OCP’s focus on Africa has only increased since 2021, as the war in Ukraine led to a shortage in fertilizer supply and higher prices that were unaffordable especially to African smallholder farmers. In order to address this crisis, Terrab explains how OCP has committed to serving the entirety of African demand if they needed to – a commitment that has involved targeted donations of customized fertilizer in approximately 20 countries.

Regarding the environmental impact of OCP’s operations, Terrab articulates goals to become carbon-neutral and how this will involve major investments into solar and wind power to de-carbonize their internal supply chain. In addition to emissions resulting from production, Terrab discusses the impact of their fertilizers. He argues that custom fertilizer can not only reduce harmful overuse, but contribute to soil nutrition to the point that it increases its capacity to sequester carbon. Referring to studies estimating that 10% or more of carbon emissions could be sequestered in the soil, he views this possibility as a way “to bring the SDG (Sustainable Development Goals)’s in kilter – reducing hunger and reducing the climate problem.” Terrab also addresses criticisms of OCP regarding the company’s operations in the Western Sahara, a region which the UN does not recognize as Moroccan territory. He provides estimates stating that the region only accounts for 2% of Morocco’s phosphate reserves, and contends that criticism has resulted from claims that such reserves will soon be depleted – something he responds to by citing data suggesting that Morocco has at least another 400 years of phosphate.

Terrab concludes the interview by turning to education, expressing how OCP’s need to train their employees in highly specified scientific fields led to the establishment of a full corporate university named Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P). He describes how the university has grown to not only benefit OCP’s research agenda, but contribute to innovations serving Morocco and the African continent more broadly. Terrab believes that a strong emphasis on entrepreneurship, such as with investments into a venture capital fund and business incubator, have incentivized the university’s faculty to simultaneously establish start-ups and publish in refereed journals. He hopes that ongoing research at UM6P, in addition to his company’s advances in customized fertilizer, will allow OCP to rise to the grand challenge of global food security while countering the effects of climate change.

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