Western Sahara Resource Watch (WSRW) has never before recorded as few clients of phosphate rock from occupied Western Sahara during a calendar year as in 2024: only four importing companies. The previous record-low was in 2023, when five companies imported the commodity. 

To compare: when WSRW started its investigations in 2012, 15 companies purchased the mineral.

The list we present in this report is complete for calendar year 2024, naming all shipments of phosphates from occupied Western Sahara. A total of 26 vessels departed the territory with approximately 1.45 million tonnes of phosphate rock, a slight decrease from the 1.6 million tonnes of 2023. 

The illegally exploited phosphate rock is one of the Moroccan government’s main sources of income from the territory it holds contrary to international law. The Saharawi people have been consistently outspoken against the trade, both in the UN, generally, and to specific companies.

Download the report here. 

Morocco has since 2021 carried out large investments in the port and in the Bou Craa facilities in Western Sahara. Since the occupation began in 1975, Morocco has only sold raw phosphate rock. In the very near future, perhaps even within a year from now, the phosphates will also be exported in a more valuable, processed form. This will make the trade more lucrative. 

It is hard to know the exact value of the trade, but WSRW guesses it could be around 319 million USD for the year of 2024. 

The massive exports to Mexico that began in July 2021 have continued on the same scale. The importer in Mexico had announced in 2018 that it had stopped such imports due to its “commitment to overall social responsibility”, yet now fails to respond to inquiries. The imports to Mexico and India constitute around 91 percent of the entire trade in Western Sahara’s prime conflict mineral. 23 of the 26 ships that departed Western Sahara in 2024 went to these two countries. Paradeep Phosphates Ltd has been listed on the stock-exchange in India since 2022. New Zealand experienced the lowest level of imports ever recorded. 

In Japan, WSRW seems to have identified the importing company behind the small annual shipments: a subsidiary of the Japanese stock-exchange registered company Taiheiyo Cement Corporation. WSRW wrote the company in 2025, for the first time, without obtaining a response. 

WSRW calls on the remaining importing companies to immediately halt all purchases and all shipments of Western Sahara phosphates until a solution to the conflict has been found. Investors are requested to engage or divest unless action is taken.

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