Ivory Coast 2017 rubber output up 26 pct

ABIDJAN, Jan 31 (Reuters) – Ivory Coast’s natural rubber output rose 26 percent in 2017 to 591,000 tonnes and will reach 750,000 tonnes by 2020, the head of the natural rubber association said on Wednesday.

Plantations in Africa’s top natural rubber exporter have spread into new areas of the country, including the centre, north-west and the east, boosting production and encouraging the regulator to reduce subsidies for the sector.

Ivory Coast forecasts production of 650,000 tonnes in 2018 and 700,000 tonnes in 2019 from 300,000 producing hectares, mostly from small-scale farmers, said Akpangni Attobra, general secretary of the Ivorian natural rubber association APROMAC.

The increase in output has outpaced processing capacity, which stands at 460,000 tonnes, forcing most exporters to send raw rubber overseas without processing, he said.

“Investments have not kept pace with the sharp rise in production. There are strong exports of (unprocessed) raw rubber to China, Malaysia and Thailand.”

Attobra said the average farmgate price of rubber in 2017 was 348.8 CFA francs ($0.67) per kg, with a peak at 476 CFA francs per kg in the first quarter of 2017. ($1 = 523.9600 CFA francs) (Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Editing by Edward McAllister and David Evans)