The Minister of State, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani, proceeded on Monday 1 st June 2021, in Abidjan, the official launch of the first Virtual Summit on rubber in the presence of the Permanent Representative of Côte d’Ivoire to international commodity organizations, Aly Touré and the president of the association of natural rubber professionals of Côte d’Ivoire, Eugène Krémien.
This high-level meeting, initiated by the international rubber study group (IRSG), of which Mr. Touré is the president, will be held from June 8 to 11 at Sofitel Hôtel Ivoire, in Abidjan. It will bring together the entire global natural rubber and synthetic rubber value chain.
It is “a real framework for the exchange of experiences and skills between experts from all over the world, on the future of rubber in producing countries as well as in consuming countries”, said Mr. Adjoumani, explaining that during this period, “all eyes will be on our country, which will take the opportunity to present its opportunities in terms of agricultural investments. It will also be an opportunity for players to exhibit their products and build commercial networks ”.
It is in “perfect coherence with the national program of agricultural investment of second generation (PNIA2) which retained as main axes, the development of the sectors and the improvement of the competitiveness of the agricultural productions to acquire a greater share of the regional market. and international ”, underlined the Minister of Agriculture.
As well as a “new opportunity to further promote Ivorian rubber cultivation through APROMAC which obtained on February 26, 2020, the status of inter-professional agricultural organization (OIA) recognized by the State, making our institution the only one. and sole interlocutor of the public authorities in matters of rubber and rubber in Côte d’Ivoire ”, for his part declared the president of APROMAC.
Meeting table: From right to left: MM Eugène Krémien, Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani and Aly Touré
This 1st virtual summit is a framework for exchanges between world experts in the research, industry and development of natural rubber and synthetic rubber, and it gives Côte d’Ivoire the opportunity to show the whole world “how much we have worked to succeed in our rubber cultivation and how we, a small country in Africa, proceed to offer one of the best, if not the best rubber in the world, ”he continued.
Rubber from Côte d’Ivoire, according to the president of APROMAC, is “one of the most sought after by the international industry because the material perfectly meets the production requirements of all products in the specialty. However, the prices offered to our brave producers unfortunately still leave much to be desired ”.
“This will therefore be an opportunity, once again to raise their voice, in order to draw the attention of the powerful to the need not to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs”, he insisted, no without arguing that “without producers there is no rubber. And, without rubber there is no tire for airplanes and cars, no gloves for hospitals, no condoms to save humanity ”.
Since the 1990s, Côte d’Ivoire has been the leading African producer of natural rubber. In 2020 we went from 6th place to 4th world producer. Economically, natural rubber is the third agricultural export product of the country in terms of volume, after cocoa and cashew nuts ”. The national rubber production is 900,000 tons. It is projected a production of two million tonnes in the coming years, according to Minister Adjoumani.
Source: Agence Ivoirienne de presse