The Florida fertilizer company Mosaic Co explains that it does not longer carry out imports from occupied Western Sahara. The firm has no delivery contracts, nor any plans of purchasing. PCS is today the only remaining North American importer of phosphates from the occupied territory.
The Florida fertilizer company Mosaic Co tells WSRW that it does not longer carry out imports from occupied Western Sahara. There are no delivery contracts, nor any plans of purchasing.
Western Sahara Resource Watch has since 2001 confirmed 15 shipments from occupied Western Sahara to the fertilizer firm Mosaic Co in Tampa, Florida. This trade has now come to a complete stop, according to the firm.
Number of shipments from occupied Western Sahara to Mosaic Co, according to WSRW's own statistics:
2001: 1
2002: 2
2003: 1
2005: 1
2006: 1
2007: 3
2008: 5
2009: 1
In a mail to WSRW section Florida 25 August 2010, the firm’s director for Social Responsibility clarified the following:
- Mosaic does not hold any delivery contracts with OCP for the purchase of Western Sahara rock.
- The last shipment of Western Sahara rock purchased by Mosaic arrived in Tampa on January 29, 2009.
- No Western Sahara rock has been purchased since this date and the Mosaic Company has no plans to purchase Western Sahara rock in future.
The clarification came as a response to a letter from Western Sahara Resource Watch to the CEO of Mosaic on 23 August 2010. WSRW requested information on the Mosaic-Western Sahara trade, and whether the bulk vessel ‘Cos Orchid’ upon arriving Tampa in June 2010 contained Western Sahara phosphates to Mosaic.
Mosaic clarifies that ‘Cos Orchid’ did not contain rock from Western Sahara, but was empty upon arrival to Tampa port.
This means that the only US firm that today imports phosphates from Western Sahara is the currently much mentioned PCS in Louisiana.
The UN Legal Counsel stated in 2002 that natural resource activities in Western Sahara are in violation of international law if the Saharawi people have not given its consent, and if they do not benefit from it.
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