U.S. Agricultural Delegation to Enhance Trade Relations with Morocco and Portugal

The American Alliance for Preserved Identity Agriculture (USIP), which represents agricultural sectors in the United States with guaranteed origins and characteristics throughout the supply chain, is set to lead a delegation of agricultural and port officials to Morocco and then to Portugal. This initiative aims to boost trade relations with American agriculture, featuring a seminar in Morocco and visits to the ports of Casablanca and Tanger Med from Sunday, August 30 to Friday, September 4, as announced by the USIP on Wednesday, August 26.

This delegation will bring together officials from the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council, farmers from Wisconsin and Ohio, representatives from the agriculture departments of Minnesota and Wisconsin, and the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation (GLS), a federal agency responsible for the American side of this maritime corridor. Morocco will serve as the first stop on this commercial mission, which focuses on opportunities for forage grains, legumes, rice, breeding animals, poultry, beef, dairy products, and soybeans.

The USIP portrays Morocco as a major agricultural outlet on the African continent, noting that the country is a net importer of agricultural and related products. In the 2024-2025 commercial campaign, Morocco ranked tenth among the markets for American soybean meal, with purchases amounting to $180 million, equivalent to approximately 1.67 billion dirhams. The organization estimates agriculture's contribution to Morocco's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at nearly 15%, highlighting that agriculture, fishing, and forestry combined employ almost half of the active workforce.

Free Trade Agreement and Agricultural Logistics in Focus

Since its implementation in 2006, the free trade agreement between Washington and Rabat remains the only one signed by the United States with an African country. The USIP intends to leverage this framework to explore market access conditions, higher value-added processing, and logistical chains connecting American production to African, European, and Middle Eastern markets in Morocco. Visits to Casablanca and Tanger Med will enable American officials to assess port infrastructures and the potential for goods transportation in both directions.

This mission arrives at a time when Moroccan phosphates are regaining visibility in American agriculture. OCP North America, a subsidiary of the OCP Group, announced on August 17 the arrival at the Port of New Orleans of approximately 54,000 tons of triple superphosphate shipped from Morocco, marking the first shipment reported after the temporary easing of U.S. countervailing duties imposed on Moroccan phosphate fertilizers. The subsidiary specified that the goods would be distributed to American farmers ahead of the fall spreading campaign.

Nine days later, on Wednesday, August 26, OCP North America and the American agricultural cooperative CHS announced their plan to establish a joint venture to build a phosphate fertilizer plant in Waggaman, Louisiana. The investment could reach $450 million, or around 4.16 billion dirhams, with a capacity exceeding one million tons per year. The OCP Group would supply the phosphoric acid for the facility, with products being marketed through the distribution networks of CHS and OCP North America.

This project, still subject to required permits and funding decisions, would represent the first American plant of its kind built since 1984. CHS estimates that the United States currently imports about 40% of the phosphate fertilizers consumed by its farmers, and this new capacity could reduce that external dependency by over 48%. The partners anticipate up to twenty-four months of construction work following necessary validations, creating approximately 500 jobs during construction and around sixty permanent positions.

Following Morocco, U.S. Producers to Promote Midwest Soybeans and Great Lakes Shipping in Portugal

After Morocco, the delegation will proceed to Portugal, where they will hold meetings with shipping companies, logistics providers, traders, and buyers, complemented by visits to the ports of Lisbon and Leixões. American farmers will showcase their farms and production methods, while GLS will present the opportunities offered by the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway network to directly connect crops from the northern United States to overseas markets.

The agriculture departments of Minnesota and Wisconsin will outline their export support programs and the range of products available from the Upper Midwest. The USIP estimates American agricultural exports to Portugal at approximately $330 million per year, nearly 3.05 billion dirhams, including $71 million worth of whole soybeans, around 657 million dirhams.

With a population of nearly eleven million, Portugal is viewed by the American organization as a stable European market, with the United States being its top trading partner outside the European Union. This mission will successively address two distinct market profiles, with Morocco acting as a commercial platform open to Africa and the Mediterranean, followed by Portugal as a European market linked to American agricultural productions via Atlantic shipping routes.

As reported by barlamane.com.