The country’s second largest agricultural export product after cocoa, rubber, which achieves a turnover of 917 million dollars for a workforce of 165,000 planters, is, it seems, also affected by the Covid-19. On the occasion of the first edition of the virtual World Summit on rubber opened this Tuesday, June 8, in Abidjan, around the theme “Facing the future: inclusiveness, sustainability and growth for the new normal”, Ivorian Prime Minister Patrick Achi reassured of the government’s contribution to relaunch the sector.
“The government has chosen to provide decisive support to the rubber sector and to amplify the support we owe to our 150,000 producers, our 40,000 tappers and the 1.2 million Ivorians who are ‘they make life live,’ Patrcik Achi said.
In fact, nearly $ 6 million will soon be disbursed to help small rubber producers to consolidate efforts and prevent their incomes from becoming precarious in the face of the medium-term effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Locally transforming a large part of the material with added value, but also always improving the integration of products into international distribution channels, is the problem facing the rubber industry which is under the supervision of Kobenan Kouassi. Adjoumani, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The leading African producer with 850,000 tonnes at the end of 2020 (78% of production), the Ivory Coast occupies 4th place in the world ranking of rubber. To consolidate these achievements, “the sustainability of the sector must be based on building the capacities of the most vulnerable link in the value chain, namely the producer”, explains Aly Touré, the chairman of the group’s heads of delegation. international study on rubber, permanent representative of Côte d’Ivoire to international commodity organizations.
