A photograph shows the port of Jorf Lasfar, south of El Jadida, where phosphate and phosphate derivatives produced by OCP Group are stored, loaded onto ships and exported to international markets, on July 1, 2026. At a phosphate mine in Morocco, an excavator tears into the earth to extract a mineral that is at the centre of Europe's growing concern over cadmium in the food chain. Morocco holds vast reserves of phosphate, a key ingredient in fertilisers. And state-owned OCP, which has a monopoly over the country's phosphate industry, says it has developed technology to reduce the amount of cadmium in its products.Phosphate often contains naturally occurring cadmium -- a heavy metal harmful to living organisms -- that can seep into farmland and eventually to food through fertilisers. (Photo by Abdel Majid BZIOUAT / AFP via Getty Images)