From raw rubber to
standardised export product

Value creation at home

In the period from 2010 to 2022, global demand for rubber increased by 40 per cent. During this time, Côte d'Ivoire has become the fourth most important rubber exporter in the world and the number one on the African continent. The country has ideal climatic conditions for growing rubber trees and now produces over one million tonnes of rubber a year.

Rubber is obtained by scratching the bark of the tree and collecting the emerging milky fluid – widely known as "latex". Through coagulation, the so-called raw rubber is produced. On the world markets, rubber is mainly traded as Technically Specified Rubber (TSR). For this, the raw rubber must be crushed, cleaned and dried. It is then further processed by customers into vulcanised rubber, which is an indispensable component of car tyres and numerous industrial and everyday products.

Côte d'Ivoire still exports almost a third of its production as raw rubber. Consequently, companies are missing out on significant revenue and the jobs required for further processing are being created in the buyer countries. The government has therefore set the goal of exclusively exporting standardised TSR from 2025. The aim is to keep as much of the labour-intensive value creation as possible in the country itself, which can create urgently needed jobs.

A plant for processing raw rubber

The company Prime Prestige from Abidjan trades in both raw rubber and TSR and sells its products to international customers. Prime Prestige operates three collection centres where it buys the raw rubber from the planters and agricultural cooperatives. However, the company does not yet have its own facilities for producing TSR and must rely on cooperation with other companies for this processing step.

With the support of Invest for Jobs, the company will build its own TSR plant in the city of Diapé, around 80 kilometres north of Abidjan, and open six additional collection points for raw rubber in the country's main growing regions. At full capacity, the new plant can produce around 30,000 tonnes of TSR per year that meets the standards of international buyers. The expansion of processing capacities by Prime Prestige will create jobs and further increase the competitiveness of the Ivorian rubber industry. At the same time, the company will be able to fulfil the government's requirement to only export TSR by 2025 and adapt to the changing market environment.

New jobs for 233 people

The collaboration with Prime Prestige will create a total of 114 full-time positions at the six new collection stations. Within three years, 119 people will be employed to operate the TSR production plant in Diapé. Prime Prestige will thus create a total of 233 new jobs as part of the project, most of them in rural areas. Around half of the new employees will be under the age of 24, and the investment project will thereby make an important contribution to reducing youth unemployment. All employees will be regular employees of Prime Prestige and will benefit from the statutory social benefits. The government of Côte d'Ivoire also wants to create domestic capacity to make rubber products such as car tyres, rubber gloves and other products. These manufacturers will also ensure that rubber cultivation remains a growth industry.

Prime Prestige plans to invest a total of 8.88 million euros. The Investment for Employment Facility is providing a grant of 1.75 million euros (20%). These funds will be used to subsidise the purchase of machinery to clean and dry the raw rubber so that it can then be processed into TSR rubber. The IFE funds will also be used to set up a laboratory for quality control of the final product.

The Facility Investing for Employment (IFE) of KfW Development Bank is part of the Special Initiative "Decent Work for a Just Transition" of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). With its support, the Facility wants to remove barriers that prevent the creation of new and better jobs in the private sector in the African partner countries.