PhilPhos enters Zambia

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Phosphate Fertilizer Corp. (PhilPhos), the country’s leading producer of phosphatic fertilizers, has successfully entered Zambia, an untapped Southern African market, and recently exported around P400 million worth of phosphate fertilizers amounting to four percent of the company’s total exports this year. The country’s first outstanding foray outside the Asian continent was when it successfully entered the Latin American continent, particularly the country of Brazil, in 2007.

“PhilPhos is proud to announce that we are the first Filipino fertilizer company to export to the African continent,” Salvador B. Zamora II, chairman of PhilPhos said, adding “Penetrating this market is a major milestone for us, as we continuously seek to expand our footprint in other parts of the globe. We chose Zambia as our entry point in Africa because of its promising agriculture industry, a key growth driver of its economy. We believe that through our exports, we can help improve the agriculture sector further and generate more jobs for the people.”

PhilPhos sees a great potential in entering the Zambian market as the country opens its doors to more direct foreign investments, with the Zambian government undertaking an aggressive diversification program into areas such as tourism, gemstone mining, and hydroelectricity, and through the use of its natural resources.

As the agriculture sector grows, so does the demand for agricultural products such as fertilizers, presenting an opportunity for PhilPhos.  

“Zambia is seen as a new export frontier for PhilPhos. Because agriculture is thriving there, we believe it is a good business move on our part. We are committed to continuing to provide our products to help improve the industry even further and uplift the lives of farmers,”  Zamora said.

PhilPhos sees this expansion as beneficial to both the company and Zambia. Not only does this move help transition the country from being largely dependent on the copper mining industry and generate more jobs for the people, but it also marks a significant turning point in the operations of PhilPhos by tapping an African market which is the world’s second most populous continent with approximately 1.03 billion people.

With a capacity of around 1,170,000 million tons of nitrogen phosphate (NP)/nitrogen phosphate potassium (NPK) fertilizers and 170,000 tons of ammosul, Philphos exports around 65 percent of its total production outside the Philippines, particularly in the ASEAN countries of Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Cambodia as well as to India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Taiwan.