• Ivory Coast ranks as the world’s third-largest latex producer, with 722,502 hectares of rubber plantations.

• The rubber producers’ federation estimates annual potential supply of more than 1.65 million cubic metres of rubberwood.

• Cambodia imported $338.8 million of timber and wood products in 2024, according to Trade Map data.

Ivory Coast has begun exploring a partnership with Cambodia to develop an industrial value chain for end-of-life rubberwood, as the country seeks to diversify revenues beyond latex production. The Federation of Rubber Sector Producers of Ivory Coast (FPH-CI) discussed the initiative during a meeting held on January 23 with Buntha Em, a senior official of the Cambodian Royal Court visiting the country.

FPH-CI said discussions focused on building a timber-processing industry anchored in Ivory Coast’s rubber sector, which currently spans about 722,502 hectares of plantations. Authorities aim to transform mature rubber trees at the end of their latex-producing cycle into industrial raw material rather than waste.

First presented at the 2025 Paris International Agricultural Show, the rubberwood valorisation project entered its operational phase on January 25. At that stage, FPH-CI launched a call for producers to join the emerging value chain.

The project aims to support farmers in identifying, harvesting and marketing rubberwood after latex production ends for industrial use. “Rubberwood is solid, durable, easy to process and resistant over time. It can be transformed into furniture and other artisanal products. Ivory Coast can supply more than 1,650,853 cubic metres of wood per year,” FPH-CI said in a statement published on its website.

While authorities have not yet disclosed the precise structure of the partnership with Phnom Penh, Cambodia ranks among Asia’s major importers of sawn timber and wood products. According to data compiled by Trade Map, Cambodia imported about $338.8 million worth of wood and related products in 2024.

A new industrial outlet for farmers

Pending progress on the Cambodian partnership, the development of a rubberwood industry opens new avenues for diversification across the sector beyond raw rubber production.

Since 2023, Italian energy group ENI has already tested the processing of rubber seeds into vegetable oil for its biorefineries. After a successful pilot phase, ENI signed an agreement with the Ivorian government on May 28, 2025, to structure a national biofuels value chain. Shortly afterward, Société des Énergies Nouvelles (SODEN) announced, on June 3, 2025, plans for a 76-megawatt power plant in Divo, which will partly rely on agricultural waste, including end-of-life rubber trees.

These initiatives create additional industrial outlets for the rubber sector and promise new income streams for smallholder farmers. In parallel, the government plans to support the planting of 500,000 additional hectares of rubber trees over the next decade to strengthen the national production base.

Even so, expanded cultivated areas will primarily support the rubber industry, where production and exports remain the main source of value. According to data from the General Directorate of Customs, Ivory Coast exported an average of 1.47 million tonnes of natural rubber between 2020 and 2024. Over the same period, export revenues averaged 1,068 billion CFA francs ($1.9 billion) per year.

Stéphanas Assocle