Visitor Tecber Ahmed Saleh, with a protest message about the Ravensdown fertiliser plant in Dunedin. PHOTO: CHRISTINE O'CONNORNew Zealanders would be "shocked" if they knew the reality about the phosphate imported from Western Sahara to make New Zealand fertiliser, Tecber Ahmed Saleh said yesterday. Ms Ahmed Saleh was born in a Saharawi refugee camp in southwest Algeria and heads an African Union-linked health operation supporting the camps. New Zealand co-operatives Ravensdown and Ballance Agri-Nutrients were the only western companies to import phosphate rock from Western Sahara, effectively financing the occupation, she said. Many Saharawi people were not benefiting from the phosphate trade, including the 173,600 people living in miserable conditions in exile in southwest Algeria, she said.

Source: Otago Daily Times October 10, 2019 15:22 UTC