Rubber

Rubber is the major source of income for most Liberians before during and after the war. Firestone is the largest buyer and has the worlds largest rubber plantation here in Liberia, but still buys half of their rubber from smallholders. During the war trees were tapped illegally by a method known as Haraka or slaughter tapping (see photos below) which extracts the most latex but causes irreparable damage to the trees. As a result up to 80 percent of the national rubber tree population needs to be replaced in the next few years. This is a major undertaking in a country that is barley through a major war that destroyed most basic infrastructure.

I have been talking to rubber farmers and many are already starting to replant, but they have no access to technical information on what tree varieties to plant, how to care for the stumps once they are planted including what crops grow well with rubber saplings while they are young, and no one is discouraging them from clearing new land. As a result indigent farmers are investing their money, time and effort on transplanting seedlings from traditional varieties that are much lower-yielding than the new improved varieties; they are not properly taking care of the seedlings resulting in greater losses; and maybe most concerning, they are clearing new land for new plantations. Many farmers and are only tapping a small portion of their rubber trees where they have cleared the brush while the rest of the farm is completely overgrown. Rather than clearing a new area, they should clear existing plantations (and use the discarded rubber trees for making charcoal – saving other trees from this fate).

The world price of natural rubber is very high at the moment because of the high cost of synthetic rubber which is a petroleum-derived product. The Liberia rubber industry was badly affected by the war, but it is gradually starting to recover, greatly helped by the high price. And the price in Liberia may go up even more. There is a new rubber buyer about to enter the market – a Chinese company which is building a huge processing plant to produce tires for the ever-growing Chinese auto industry. The company has no plantation of their own, so they will be entirely dependent on buying from smallholders. The other big rubber companies are worried that the Chinese firm try and put them out of business.

The long-term potential for rubber in Liberia is undoubted, but there will be a slump for 7 years while the newly planted trees grow large enough to be tapped. Sadly, the next 7 years are when the Liberian economy will need the biggest push to help move people out of poverty and given them an incentive to maintain peace. Right now, the majority of Liberians live on less than $.50 a day.