Ivory Coast is one of the major natural rubber producers in the world and the country has recently brought more land under cultivation. It is ranked as Africa’s number one rubber exporter and also the seventh largest producer globally.
Recently, Ivory Coast’s minister of agriculture estimated that the country will produce 2 million tonnes of natural rubber by 2023. This prediction is based on the country’s flourishing natural rubber plantations as more and more farmers have switched from cocoa to grow rubber in recent years.
If Ivory Coast achieves 2 million tonnes of natural rubber by 2023, it would translate to over three-fold rise in natural rubber production in the country.
As production spreads across the country, Ivory Coast’s natural rubber association (APROMAC) has also increased its 2020 natural rubber production forecast to 750,000 tonnes. Over 165,000 farmers were planting rubber on around 600,000 hectares of land in 2017, according to APROMAC. That year, country’s rubber industry had a turnover of 495 billion CFA francs ($880 million).
Find out more about natural rubber production in Ivory Coast at CMT’s 6th Africa Oil Palm & Rubber Summit on 8-9 May 2019 in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.
