Cablegate: Liberia: Rubber Sector Overview

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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 MONROVIA 000289

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAGR ECON ELAB EINV PHUM PGOV LI
SUBJECT: LIBERIA: RUBBER SECTOR OVERVIEW

REF: A. MONROVIA 271
B. MONROVIA 251
C. MONROVIA 82
D. 08 MONROVIA 1003
E. 08 MONROVIA 880
F. 08 MONROVIA 242
G. 07 MONROVIA 547

1. (U) SUMMARY: Liberia's rubber sector provides 5.5% of
its economic output, 85% of its exports and work for an
estimated 50,000 Liberians. Roughly 40% of Liberia's rubber
comes from small, Liberian-owned farms, with the remainder
produced on large foreign-owned concessions. There has been
little new planting since war broke out in the 1980s; most
farms and concessions are dilapidated and full of older,
unproductive trees. Revitalizing the rubber sector will take
years and producers face challenges from theft, land disputes
and access to finance. Foreign-owned concessions have been
the first to invest in large-scale replanting, but many
concessions are just recently reverting to private management
as the government seeks to renegotiate new terms on old
concession agreements. Paragraphs 11-29 provide details on
current foreign-owned concessions (Note: this information is
business proprietary for U.S. Government use only. End
note). Problems on GOL-managed plantations will be reported
septel. END SUMMARY.

Background on Liberia Rubber Sector
-----------------------------------

2. (U) According to IMF figures, global natural rubber
production in 2006 was 9.2 million tons of which just over
100,000 tons (or roughly 1%) came from Liberian exports.
Central Bank of Liberia data suggest that rubber production
contributed 5.5% to Liberia's GDP in 2008 (down from 8% in
2006). Rubber still dominates Liberian exports, accounting
for over 86% of total exports by value in 2008 (down from 95%
in 2006). Initial figures for the value of rubber exports in
2008 are approximately $220 million. In December 2008, the
IMF revised estimates for 2009 exports down to $135 million.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), there are an
estimated 200,000 hectares of planted rubber in Liberia,
roughly 40% on current or former concessions and 60% on
smallholder farms. The sector provides employment for about
40-50,000 Liberians.

Small Farms Struggle
--------------------

3. (U) Years of conflict have taken a toll on rubber farms.
Many were occupied during the war by combatants and
"slaughter tapped" with little regard to sustainable
management. There has been only limited organized replanting
since the 1980s and most trees are past the normal productive
life (25-30 years). Small farmers are now slowly planting
new trees, often in partnership with larger plantations and
processing facilities that provide seedlings in return for
raw rubber supply. As part of its program to use rubberwood
chips from old trees to fuel a new 35MW power plant north of
Monrovia, Canadian firm Buchanan Renewables is also providing
new seedlings and other assistance to those farmers who sell
their older, unproductive to the firm (ref C). But until new
trees begin to produce (usually at least 7 years), growth in
rubber output will be weak, and the quality and quantity of
production may continue to fall at a time when prices are
also dropping.

4. (U) Most Liberian rubber farmers sell unprocessed rubber
to brokers or directly to buying stations managed by one of
the firms capable of processing the rubber for export. Until
2007, there were only two processing facilities operating in
Liberia: Firestone and the Liberia Agriculture Company (LAC).
Deputy Minister of Agriculture James Logan told Econoff
April 21 that the addition of processing plants at the
relatively small Morris American Rubber Company (MARCO) in
Margibi County and two stand-alone processing centers in Bong
County (Weala restarted in 2007 and Lee Group opened in 2009)
has recently created a glut of processing capacity.

5. (U) Expansion of small farms remains constrained by land
disputes and a lack of access to capital. Leaders of the
Rubber Planters Association of Liberia (RPAL) tell us the

MONROVIA 00000289 002 OF 006

long period between planting and production for rubber makes
access to financing impossible. Liberian banks are generally
unwilling to loan for terms longer than two years while
revenues from newly planted trees start flowing several years
later. Those farmers looking to expand are also finding it
challenging to reassert control over farms that have been
abandoned - and often occupied - during the civil conflict.

6. (U) Crime is also a threat. Illicit tapping to steal raw
rubber has been a major contributor to lawlessness on many
plantations and small farms, particularly when the price of
rubber was high. In November 2008, in an attempt to protect
local processors and discourage rubber theft, the GOL banned
the export of unprocessed rubber and authorized rubber
purchases only from licensed agents (ref D). The ban was
targeted at the large number of unlicensed brokers who
provided a market for stolen rubber, and to stop the flow of
unprocessed rubber across the border to Cote d'Ivoire for
processing. However, in response to complaints from rubber
producers in the southeast where no processing facility
exists (and in the context of lower prices that discouraged
stealing), the GOL suspended the ban in March, 2009.

Rubber Alliance slow to perform
-------------------------------

7. (U) In 2007, the MOA, RPAL, Firestone and USAID signed a
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to set up a Rubber Alliance
with the purpose of creating commercial opportunities to
increase smallholder incomes from rubber production and
"intercropping" of other agricultural products on farms and
plantations. The Alliance failed to initiate any programs
due to the lack of reliable data on sector needs and weak
leadership from the MOA. In early 2009, the Alliance was
re-activated with an expanded representation from other
plantations, and USAID funded a consultant to draft a Rubber
Sector Master Plan. The plan is expected to be completed in
October.

Plantation concessions revised
------------------------------

8. (U) Because only Liberians can own land, foreign
investors in the rubber sector operate on government-licensed
plantations. The GOL grants concessions in return for
development commitments, social and employment undertakings,
and the payment of land rent, taxes and duties. The GOL
currently negotiates the terms and condition of each
concession agreement separately, a time-consuming process
that has created inconsistencies and opportunities for
corruption. The revised Liberia Revenue Code currently
before the legislature includes standard provisions for
investments between $1m and $20m that would apply to rubber
concessions. These would standardize and expedite the
concession process and be granted without legislative
approval.

9. (U) The GOL amended its concession agreement with
Firestone in 2008 (ref F) and that agreement now serves as a
model for other agricultural concession negotiations (and
re-negotiations) currently underway. The GOL has focused on
five priorities during concessions negotiations:

-- standardized agreements in accordance with Liberian law
(particularly tax and revenue codes);

-- commitment to smallholder development within and adjacent
to the concession area;

-- contributions to Community Development Funds;

-- a 'margin of preference' for Liberian firms and majority
Liberian management; and

-- detailed terms and conditions for social infrastructure
and development.

10. (U) The MOA has also proposed standard language that
would require that concessionaires contribute 1% of the value
of all rubber exports to fund the development of the rubber
sector in Liberia.

MONROVIA 00000289 003 OF 006

11. (U) The following paragraphs provide updated information
on current rubber concessions in Liberia. (Note: this
information is business proprietary for U.S. Government use
only. End note).

Firestone Natural Rubber Liberia
(Margibi County)
--------------------------------

12. (SBU) Firestone's plantation in Harbel is the world's
largest contiguous rubber-producing estate at 118,000 acres,
77,000 of which are currently in production. Firestone
signed a 36-year amended concession agreement in 2008 (ref F)
and has commenced its largest replanting investment since the
end of World War II. In addition to the rubber it produces
on the estate, Firestone buys 75 million pounds of
unprocessed rubber from private producers each year. The
plantation employs roughly 9,500 workers, about 7,000 of whom
are full time. The firm provides schooling to 17,000
children at 26 schools, along with two clinics and a new,
modern hospital. Firestone recently completed a $5m water
treatment project and a factory to process rubberwood for
export, the first of its kind in Liberia.

13. (SBU) Firestone exports just over 60% of Liberia's total
rubber exports and supplies roughly 15% of parent company
Bridgestone's (Japan) input. Firestone uses all solid rubber
exports at its plants in North and South Carolina and sells
condensed latex on the open market. Despite having the most
comprehensive social development projects in the country, the
company is often the target of union and environmental groups
due to its size and history in Liberia.

Liberia Agriculture Company
(Grand Bassa County)
---------------------------

14. (SBU) LAC's concession is larger (300,000 acres) than
Firestone's but there are fewer acres under production
(32,000). The GOL and LAC concluded an MOU in December 2007
that ratified the plantation's development plan and included
provisions for 7,500 acres of smallholder farms supported by
LAC, along with increased housing, schools, clinics, and
water sanitation. The MOU forms the basis for ongoing
negotiations for a formal amended concession agreement that
would be based on the new Firestone agreement.

15. (SBU) LAC was originally concessioned to Uniroyal but is
now 100% owned by the Belgian Societe Financiere Des
Caoutchoucs (SocFin), which also has ties to Salala and Weala
(see below). Because of its size, land rights have been an
ongoing source of tension between LAC and surrounding
residents, and opposition Liberty Party leader Charles
Brumskine of Grand Bassa has been one of the loudest
opposition voices to the LAC agreement. In late 2007, LAC's
Belgian plantation manager was shot dead, apparently by local
residents unhappy over the company's GOL-approved expansion
plan.

Salala Rubber Plantation
(Margibi County)
------------------------

16. (SBU) Salala's concession dates from the 1960s and
covers 21,000 acres of which 7,000 are planted. However,
many trees are old and unproductive. The plantation is owned
and operated by Salala Rubber Corporation (SRC), the product
of a merger in July 2007 of a stand-alone rubber processing
factory (Weala Rubber company) and the Salala rubber
plantation.

17. (SBU) SRC is 90% owned by Agrifinal N.V. (Belgium), and
Intercultures (Luxembourg), a subsidiary of SocFin, the same
company that owns LAC. Salala is managed by SocFin
Consultant Services, an affiliate of SocFin. SRC received a
$10 million, 11-year loan from the IFC in 2008 to finance
rehabilitation of the plantation. The loan is IFC's largest
agribusiness investment in Liberia.

Cavalla Rubber Plantation
(Maryland County)
-------------------------

MONROVIA 00000289 004 OF 006

18. (SBU) The Cavalla concession covers 20,000 acres, of
which 15,000 are planted, mostly with older, unproductive
trees. Cavalla is jointly owned by the GOL and Salala Rubber
Investments Ltd (SRI) of the UK and managed since November
2007 by SRI. SRI broke ground in February 2009 on a new
rubber processing plant on Cavalla and has settled salary
arrears to be able to lay off 600 workers. The GOL has been
negotiating since 2007 with SRI and Bakrie Sumatra
Plantations (BSP) of Indonesia to sell its 50% share in the
plantation.

19. (SBU) Cavalla belonged to Firestone from the 1920s to
1984 when it was turned over to the Cavalla Rubber
Corporation (CRC), a 50/50 joint venture between the GOL and
Societe Internationale de Plantations et de Finance (SIPEF)
of Belgium. The war forced SIPEF out of Liberia in 1990, and
the plantation was abandoned until former President Charles
Taylor installed Agrocom under the management of Harrison
Karnwea (now at Cocopa) in 1997, and later GINOL from
2000-2003 when MODEL forces occupied the concession. After
the war ended, Cavalla passed first to the Maryland County
Legislative Caucus, then in 2005 to Liberian firm Agro
Management, and later to the Pleebo Rubber Corporation. In
2006, after labor unrest over unpaid salaries, the GOL (with
UNMIL assistance) repossessed the plantation. The RPAL
assumed interim management from May 2006 to November 2007,
when SRI purchased SIPEF's 50% share and took over private
management under the original CRC name. In early 2008, SRI
sold a portion to Cote d'Ivoire-based Internationale De
Plantation D'Heveast (SIPH) of France, and repaired the road
to the border to facilitate exports of raw rubber to the Cote
d'Ivoire for processing.

Cocopa Rubber Plantation
(Nimba County)
------------------------

20. (SBU) Cocopa is owned by the Liberia Company (LIBCO), an
American firm originally owned by Pan Am and Delta Sea Lines
in the 1950s when LIBCO managed Liberia's port, airport, and
regional Pan Am operations. Cocopa began as a cocoa
plantation but shifted to rubber as being more profitable and
suitable for the climate. The original concession is 175,000
acres but only 25,000 are planted, and only 7,000 acres are
still in production. Cocopa has replanted 2,000 new acres of
trees since 2002 and has plans to plant 400 acres per year.
The GOL reaffirmed in 2007 LIBCO's concession agreement
through 2029 based on a stipulation to renegotiate terms in
2009, and LIBCO is pursuing another round of OPIC financing.
Cocopa does not have a processing plant, and sells most of
its rubber to Firestone.

21. (SBU) After OPIC-supported expansion in the 1980s,
government forces looking for Charles Taylor ransacked Cocopa
in 1990, and the plantation was occupied from 1990-95 by
Taylor-allied Nimba Rubber Company. In 1996, LIBCO's
American manager, Charles Trippe, installed Taylor associate
Roland Massaquoi as manager, who later ran against Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf in the 2005 presidential race. After the
election, the GOL sought to take over the plantation and
install an interim management team. Trippe objected and the
Embassy weighed in with President Sirleaf. Eventually the
Supreme Court ordered the Ministry of Agriculture to remove
the GOL interim management and return Cocopa to LIBCO. A
deal was struck between the GOL and LIBCO at the February
2007 Liberia Investment Conference in Washington. LIBCO
arranged for LAC management to temporarily operate the
plantation before reinstalling independent management under
Harrison Karnwea (former Cavalla plantation manager and Nimba
County Superintendent) in 2008. In July 2008, a rubber thief
died while in custody of Cocopa security, igniting a series
of violent incidents at the plantation. In February 2009,
Cocopa dismissed 30 contract security forces who set up
roadblocks around the plantation in response until disbursed
by UNMIL and local government officials.

Sinoe Rubber Plantation
(Sinoe County)
-----------------------

22. (SBU) Sinoe is the largest rubber concession in Liberia,

MONROVIA 00000289 005 OF 006

covering over 600,000 acres, 50,000 acres planted at peak,
much of which are now past their productive cycle. Sinoe was
the site of fierce fighting during the war, and has been
largely unmanaged and ungoverned since. Housing and other
social infrastructure are vandalized and dilapidated.
Ownership and management of the plantation remains under
dispute (septel will provide further analysis on Sinoe's
situation).

23. (SBU) The original 80-year Sinoe Concession was
concluded in 1953 with German-owned African Fruits Company
(AFC). In 1973, AFC sold to Ernest Dennis who supposedly
(this is currently contested in Liberian courts) sold to
Mesurado Plantation Industries. In 1983, MPI leased to
GOL-owned Sinoe Rubber Corporation for 20 years. MODEL
forces occupied the plantation during the war, and after the
war, former fighters led by Leon Worjlah ("White Flower")
took control of the plantation through a local association
called the Citizen's Welfare Committee (CWC) which "taxed"
locals for access to the plantation. In June 2008, local
citizens demanded removal of the CWC, and after a series of
clashes, the local caucus and Superintendent dislodged "White
Flower" and banned the CWC. Local authorities have since
attempted to install their own management (the Sinoe Trust)
but the MOA has blocked the Sinoe Trust and insisted on
appointing a rival management team. By early 2009, neither
IMT had established control. In March 2009, the GOL asked
management from MARCO (see below) to temporarily take over
management but to date there is no agreement on a new IMT.

24. (SBU) Meanwhile, in August 2005 the MOA issued a
document confirming Monsurado's ownership of the plantation,
but the ruling did not have attestation of the Ministries of
Finance or Justice. In 2007, the MOJ told the UN the
plantation was owned by the Tolbert family. The GOL asked
UNMIL to take control in 2007 so that an interim management
team could be installed, but the UN requested that the GOL
commit in an MOU that the plantation would not simply be
turned over to another GOL-appointed IMT without any
accountability for financial management and local community
development. The GOL apparently does not want to be seen
reclaiming the plantation from the combatants to hand over to
the Tolberts, a prominent Americo-Liberian family. So for
now, the UN won't go in, the GOL won't push the issue, and
the plantation remains neglected. The press reported in
April 2009 that the Tolbert family had filed for an official
court ruling on the plantation's ownership.

Gutherie Rubber Plantation
(Bomi and Grand Cape Mount Counties)
------------------------------------

25. (SBU) Gutherie plantation totals 300,000 acres, of which
roughly 22,000 are planted. Mismanagement by a succession of
GOL-appointed IMTs produced periodic violent flare-ups, most
recently in March 2009. There has been no new planting or
investment in infrastructure since prior to the war. Most
tappers carry out slaughter-tapping of trees and sell the
latex to Firestone for quick cash. Those schools and health
services that exist are provided primarily by NGOs. The
Malaysian firm Sime Darby (which acquired the Gutherie
Company - the original concession holder) expressed interest
in 2007 for a revised concession agreement. Discussions were
unproductive for almost two years until the resignation of
Agriculture Minister Toe and worker unrest in March 2009
cleared the logjam on negotiations. The MOA and National
Investment Commission say an agreement with Sime Darby is
likely by May, 2009.

26. (SBU) Gutherie was originally concessioned to B.F.
Goodrich in 1957. Goodrich pulled out of Liberia after the
1980 coup and the GOL then contracted with Gutherie Rubber
Company (Malaysia) to manage the concession from 1981-2000.
In 2000 Charles Taylor took control of the plantation and
installed an interim management team. After the war, LURD
ex-combatants occupied the plantation and the National
Transitional Government of Liberia gave operations to the
General Resource Corporation chaired by Ghazi Bazi until
September 2005, followed by Agro Resources Corporation in
early 2006. In August 2006, UNMIL took control of security
and the GOL installed an IMT led by the RPAL. In January
2008 workers demanded higher payments and services and forced

MONROVIA 00000289 006 OF 006

the RPAL out, after which the GOL appointed a new IMT that
reported directly to the MOA. Allegations of gross
mismanagement and corruption under the MOA-appointed IMT led
to violence on the plantation in 2009 and contributed to the
resignation of Agriculture Minister Christopher Toe in March
(ref B).

Decoris Plantation
(Maryland County)
------------------

27. (SBU) Decoris was previously a government-owned
20,000-acre oil palm plantation financed partly by the
African Development Bank. There has been no consistent
management of the plantation since 1993. The GOL opened bids
for the plantation in April 2009. Reportedly BSP and SIPH
(also with interest in Cavalla) were among the bidders on
what the GOL hopes will be a joint rubber and oil palm
concession.

Morris American Rubber Corporation
(Montserrado County)
----------------------------------

28. (SBU) MARCO is the largest Liberian-owned operational
rubber farm, with 10,000 acres of land, 6,000 of which are
planted. The farm is owned by Bill Morris and managed by
former RPAL Director, Keith Jubah. MARCO previously sold
unprocessed rubber to Firestone but recently completed
construction of a $2.5 million processing facility, financed
by the Liberian Bank for Development Investment (LBDI) and
guaranteed by the IFC. The farm employs 400 workers and is
also the site of construction of a 35MW rubberwood-chip
fueled power plant by Buchanan Renewables (ref C).

Lee Rubber Group Processing Factory
(Bong County)
-----------------------------------

29. (SBU) Singapore-based Lee Rubber Group completed
construction of a $50 million rubber processing facility in
the Salala district of Bong County in January 2009. The
facility does not yet have any plantation land but is in
discussions with the GOL to acquire a nearby concession area.
Lee Group has pledged to create more value-added products at
its facility (including chairs and slippers) rather than
exporting only block and liquid latex.

ROBINSON

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