The Rubber Planters Association of Liberia (RPAL) says the government of Liberia is in no error in banning the export of unprocessed rubber.

The RPAL, a major rubber sector stakeholder, has unanimously reiterated its support of the ban because the export of unprocessed rubber out of Liberia denies the government the ability to generate necessary taxes and takes away jobs from Liberians.

Liberia currently has at least four factories that are engaged in exporting processed rubber. They include Jeety Rubber Factory, Firestone Rubber Plantation, Liberia Agriculture Company (LAC) and the Lee Group.

These companies employ thousands of Liberians at their factories and can only maintain their workforce and meet their production targets if the ban on unprocessed rubber remains in place.

Compared to Liberia, neighboring Côte d’Ivoire, which has over a dozen rubber factories, imposed a ban on the export of unprocessed rubber on November 21, 2023, as a means of protecting the local domestic companies that rely on their locally produced rubber latex for protection to stay in business.

At their press conference on Tuesday, February 27, RPAL cited Article 5 of the Liberian Constitution regarding safeguarding the economy and sustaining value addition as critical points in supporting the government’s decision to ban unprocessed rubber exports.

Additionally, the group said allowing the unprocessed export of natural rubber will undermine Liberia’s quota and participation in the Association of Natural Rubber-Producing Countries (ANRPCI) and the Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPNSR). 

Following a National Congress of the Rubber Planters Association of Liberia convened on 23 February 2024, on Cooper Farm, Montserrado County, the group unanimously reaffirmed its unequivocal support for Executive Order 124, which bans unprocessed rubber export.

The immediate past President of Liberia, George Manneh Weah, issued the Executive Order nearing the end of his administration, and it remains in force under current President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s regime.

President Weah is not alone, former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf issued several executive orders banning unprocessed rubber exports, aimed at strengthening the local sector.

According to RPAL, unrestricted export of unprocessed rubber supersedes the sector's productivity. The group laments that for more than five years, the sector has not exported more than 250,000 metric tons of processed rubber. 

RPAL said it was envisaged by 2020 that producers would have hit 350,000 metric tons of rubber.

“The exportation of unprocessed natural rubber from Liberia undermines the nation's GDP. The commodity ends in Nigeria or other countries in the subregion, with buyers who process the commodity and export same,” said RPAL. 

It continued that the so-called consortium of rubber actors are not farmers or producers but middlemen that have been used by the exporters who withhold subscription fees from farmers without remittance to the RPAL and Rubber Development Fund Incorporated (RDFI).

According to RPAL, the Government of Côte d’Ivoire has legislated a ban on the exportation of unprocessed natural rubber. 

“Unless value addition is upheld, promoted, and sustained, the sector risk declines,” RPAL warns.

RPAL’s statement disclosed that the Delegates at the convention assembled in Cooper Farm, Todee District, Montserrado County, petitioned the Legislature to enact a law to prohibit the export of unprocessed natural rubber.

Regarding the economic benefits, RPAL said agriculture, including forestry, is the primary livelihood for more than 60 percent of Liberia’s population and accounted for 31 percent of Liberia’s 2021 real gross domestic product (GDP).

He emphasized that rubber is a dominant revenue generator, accounting for 12.5 percent of the total export receipts in 2021. 

“Note that 16% of the revenue of Liberia, according to various estimates, puts the number of people employed by commercial rubber farms at 20,000 and the number of smallholder households involved in growing rubber trees at 35,00,” said RPAL. 

Globally, the RPAL noted, importing and exporting raw materials can influence the GDP, its exchange rate, and its level of inflation and interest rate. 

In the rubber sector of Liberia, RPAL observes that many smallholder farmers face problems or challenges with the drop-down of rubber prices, with the prices of raw materials always depreciating because of their lack of value, whereas the price of finished rubber is better.

“2.16% of the revenue of Liberia is generated from the rubber industry, and the exportation of Unprocessed Natural Rubber undermines value addition, diminishes revenue, and adversely impacts the economy,” the RPAL said.