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CHS, OCP target 2028 startup for Louisiana phosphate fertilizer plant

The nation’s largest ag cooperative, CHS, is partnering with a major phosphate fertilizer producer to build a fertilizer production facility in Louisiana by the end of the decade.

CHS CEO Jay Debertin tells Brownfield the joint venture is with Moroccan-based OCP.

“A company that focuses primarily in the production of phosphate fertilizer and all aspects associated with it. Morocco is home to really a large portion of the world’s supply of phosphate so it makes for a great partner.”

He says the proposed plant in Waggaman, near the Port of New Orleans, would produce more than 1 million metric tons of phosphate-based fertilizer annually.

“And from that facility then we will ship (fertilizer) up the Mississippi River and get it out into the fields of America.”

Debertin says the project is in its permitting stage with construction potentially starting in the first or second quarter of 2027 and the plant’s operations beginning toward the end of 2028.