Mohamed Fikrat, CEO, Cosumar

A pioneer of the sugar industry in Morocco, Cosumar is focusing on both sustainability at home and international expansion.

Cosumar Group, since its establishment in 1929, has become a market leader in sugar extraction. How would you describe the evolution of the company over these 91 years?

Cosumar is the pioneer of the sugar industry in Morocco. The company includes in its capital the Singaporean Groue Wilmar as well as Moroccan institutions, namely, among others, pension funds and insurance companies. Cosumar started its production with 100 tons of sugar loaves produced per day in the Casablanca site, and today this company has become a group with eight factories across the Kingdom, with projects targeting international growth. We can be extremely proud of the progress made. Our responsibility has always been preserving the Moroccan sugar industry because it is a matter of national food security. Since the acquisition of the public sugar factories in 2005, the group has made great effort in terms of investments to modernize our national sugar industry in areas such as agricultural productivity, industrial performance, energy efficiency, and preservation of natural resources. These challenges also meet the expectations of our partners in our ecosystem. As a corporate citizen, we are also committed to social responsibility based on trust in our stakeholders: our employees, farmers, customers, shareholders, our suppliers, and institutional partners. For example, gains in productivity and agricultural yield have enabled our farming partners to benefit from a 10% increase in their incomes per year on average. Today, Cosumar is recognized as a committed and responsible socioeconomic player. Our sites are all QSE and FSSC ISO22000 certified, and our CSR approach is CGEM certified and recognized by the VIGEO EIRIS index of the Casablanca Stock Exchange. We supply the Moroccan market, but our ambition is international. We have launched white sugar production projects overseas with foreign partners, such as in Saudi Arabia with our partners Consolidated Brothers Company and Industrial Projects Development Company and in Guinea Conakry in partnership with SOGECILE. Our white sugar export activity was launched in 2013.

2020 has been a challenging year for all industries in Morocco. How has COVID-19 impacted your operations, and what key strategies have you followed to mitigate this impact?

2020 was particularly difficult for the economic sector and agrifood business to a lesser extent. Cosumar had to put in place extremely stringent measures to protect our human capital and ecosystem and ensure the activity of the factories. We were able to maintain the production of this staple food, sugar, and all the sites quickly deployed the necessary equipment in terms of hygiene in addition to constant awareness of barrier gestures. The Attaissir digital platform, launched in 2019, was a fully adapted and useful solution to manage the constraints of the situation. Indeed, Attaissir was developed by our engineers in collaboration with a Moroccan start-up and is intended for the digitalization of upstream processes. Agricultural partners, farmers, transporters, and service providers are using this system, which allows sowing and lifting operations to be monitored online using machines connected by GPS.

Cosumar is member of ASMEX. How much of your revenue comes from exports, and what are your expansion plans?

Our export activity has developed gradually since its launch eight years ago. The volumes exported have progressed gradually reached over 650,000 tons, and these operations are conducted outside the regulatory framework for subsidies. This represents around 25% of our turnover, and we currently serve around 40 countries. To Cosumar, exports are linked to the capture of opportunities according to market prices and the white premium. We have a production capacity of over 2 million tons of white sugar for a local market of around 1.2 million tons.

What are your key goals and priorities for the year ahead and for 2021?

In 2021, we will pursue our strategic axes. We must first, at a national level, guarantee the coming agricultural seasons, because the production from our locally grown plants represents an important source for our agricultural partners in the five regions. The constraints encountered at the start of the year, mainly due to the drought, the drop in the water level in the irrigation dams, and then the January floods, were managed in such a way so as not to impact local production. However, we are making all the necessary efforts with our institutional partners, agriculture, and the local authorities to support the ecosystem and farmers in the five regions. The Casablanca-based raw sugar refinery, which is recognized as one of the most efficient in the world, is designed to meet the necessary needs for the national market. We also plan to continue sugar production at Comaguis and prepare for the commissioning of the Durrah refinery in Saudi Arabia in the coming weeks.