Mesaieed: In a ceremony 3^rd May 2011 in Mesaieed, QAFCO a global leader in the fertilizer industry, was awarded with the Responsible Care certificate. The certificate was handed over to QAFCO Vice- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Khalifa A Al-Sowaidi by Ms. Ayse Meral Akgun- Bureau Veritas Regional Manager in the presence of Senior Management officials from QAFCO and Bureau Veritas.

Speaking on the occasion, QAFCO vice Chairman and CEO, Mr. Khalifa Al Sowaidi said, "QAFCO has continually improved its management systems by bringing best practices into the organization and embraced new initiatives that benefit the society and environment." He further added, "Responsible Care Management System and IFA Product Stewardship program were the two recent initiatives adopted by QAFCO. We are glad that we have achieved a milestone in our journey towards excellence by getting RC 14001 Responsible Care certification."

Responsible Care is a comprehensive Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSSE) performance improvement initiative. It helps companies improve performance by identifying and spreading good management practices, and promotes mutual support between companies and associations through experience sharing. It promotes openness and transparency with stakeholders."Responsible Care" was originally conceived in 1984 by the Canadian Chemical Producers Association and the initiative was brought to the United States by American Chemistry Council (ACC) in 1988. Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA) adopted the Responsible Care initiative in 2009 thereby bringing this important initiative to the Gulf and Middle East region. QAFCO is one of the first few companies who are certified in RC 14001 among GPCA member companies and other companies in the middle east.

Product stewardship and Security Vulnerability Assessment are two additional major elements of Responsible Care requirements. Product stewardship is Responsible Care applied to products, and covers more than just production and use of chemicals: it extends to other parts of the product supply chain such as transport, storage, use and eventual disposal. Companies are working with their suppliers, customers, distributors and user groups to spread Responsible Care throughout the supply chain. Vulnerability Assessment is the process of identifying and prioritizing (or ranking) the vulnerabilities in a system. Examples of systems for which vulnerability assessments are performed for include, but not limited to, chemical plants, information technology systems, energy supply systems, water supply systems, transportation systems and communication systems.

QAFCO has always been striving to excel in quality, safety and environmental performances and attain sustainable development, with due care for future generations, bringing further benefits to people, environment and community. In its journey towards excellence, QAFCO was honoured with ISO 9001 certification for Quality Management System in 1996, ISO 14001 certification for Environment Management System in 1997 and OHSAS 18001 certification for Occupational Health and Safety Management System in 1999 thus becoming one of the few companies to get certifications in the three management systems. Implementation of ISO 9001 has helped QAFCO to focus on customer satisfaction and loyalty, increase revenue and market share and to bring effectiveness and efficiency in all its operations thus enabling sustained success of the organization. Implementation of ISO 14001 has brought many benefits like demonstrating the environmental responsibility, conserving input materials and energy, reducing emissions, obtaining insurance at reasonable cost and enhancing company image. Implementation of OHSAS 18001 has helped QAFCO to carry out the activities related to Safety within the organization in a systematic manner so as to, prevent injury to personnel, ill health, damage to plant & equipment, damage to neighboring community, loss of resources (time & money), reduce insurance cost, increase plant availability factor to cater to customer needs and hence build a reputation in the market.

The other initiative QAFCO is committed to is International Fertilizer Association's (IFA) Product Stewardship. This initiative is based on IFA's 12 Safety, Health and Environment Principles, which further enhances sustainable production and use of fertilizers. QAFCO is in the final stage of certification and the certification audit is scheduled in May 2011. QAFCO is one of the pioneer companies to achieve this distinction at global level and will be recognized as IFA Product Steward Excellence company (Level 2) . QAFCO can also use Protect & Sustain Excellence Logo for marketing and communication purposes.

It is worth to mention that Qatar Fertiliser Company (QAFCO), was founded in 1969. The company is now owned by Industries Qatar (IQ) as 75% shareholder and Yara Nederlands as 25% shareholder. At present QAFCO complex comprises 4 completely integrated trains, QAFCO-1 (1973), QAFCO-2 (1979), QAFCO-3 (1997) and QAFCO-4 (2004). Each of these production lines consists of an ammonia plant and a urea plant. The overall annual production capacity of the 4 plants is 2 million tons of ammonia and 3 million tons of urea. When QAFCO 5 becomes operational this year, the company will claim top position as the world's largest fertilizer producer, with an annual production of 3.6 million tons of ammonia and 4.3 million tons of urea. QAFCO 6, which is expected to come on line in 2012, will boost QAFCO's annual urea production to 5.6 million tons, representing 15% of the global trade.

High quality products, a strategic geographical location, efficient logistic facilities and reliability in supply are among the factors that propelled the growth of QAFCO into a key producer and exporter in the international fertiliser market. Deliveries have been made throughout the world, with India, Jordan, South Africa, South Korea and the USA of major importance in terms of QAFCO's ammonia exports and the markets of Africa and Asia plus the USA predominating for QAFCO's urea exports.