Let’s be intentional about rubber industry

The Ministry of Trade, Agribusiness and Industry has announced an outright ban on raw rubber exports in a bold step that will have positive far-reaching effect on the Ghanaian business landscape.

The decision, coming in the wake of the Daily Graphic’s revelations about industry practices, job losses, fleecing of the state through under-invoicing of raw rubber exports and other issues that undermine the business environment is most welcoming.

Coming at a time when various segments of the system have begun to lay the foundation blocks for the implementation of the government’s 24-Hour Economy policy, the decision perfectly sits within the broader spectrum of efforts to structure the economy to add value to local production, set up an industrial base to provide jobs, and to produce for the export market to improve foreign exchange earnings.

The Daily Graphic basks in this decision, and feels proud to associate with the processes leading to the announcement of the 10-year ban on raw rubber export.

Ours was an advocacy that exposed the ills bedeviling the industry, the threat to existing processing infrastructure, and the danger of pushing more youth into the uncertain world of unemployment through political inaction.

Our recent news reports on the local rubber industry stand as testament of the role of media advocacy to national development and the impact of true development journalism to the attainment of impactful results in our local space.

Across different publications, the newspaper threw the spotlight on Customs processes at the export channels at the ports, how raw rubber exports were starving local processing infrastructure of materials to process, how local rubber processing firms operated far below their installed capacity, and how more than 30 per cent of jobs in the rubber processing system were cut because of all the other factors.

We cannot help but to also praise the Minister of Trade, Agribusiness and Industry, Elizabeth Ofosu-Agyare, for coming to this decision on banning raw rubber exports completely.

For a sector whose oversight overlaps across local production and exports, competing interests from exporters and local value chain actors can provide a tough test.

It is our considered view that the decision to ban raw rubber exports was long overdue, given the interest intended by the government’s own “Feed the Industry Programme”.

It is trite knowledge that the export of raw rubber meant the creation of jobs in other economies while the teeming youth of the country remained unemployed.

What was missing was the political will to move words into action after the 2026 Budget Statement declared that the country would restrict raw rubber exports in order to have enough to feed the local processing industry.

The logic was straightforward. Ghana produces just over 100,000 tonnes of raw rubber annually, but domestic processing capacity stands at over 178,000 tonnes per year.

The result is underutilised plants, stalled outgrower schemes, which had put over GH¢650 million of a farmer support loan scheme at risk.

Industry players say raw rubber earns roughly $600 per tonne, while processed rubber fetches nearly $1,500 per tonne. It is estimated that the policy could save over $127 million annually and protect more than 70,000 rural livelihoods.

While the ban regime comes with various advantages, the system must ensure that it yields the desired results.

For instance, the interest of rubber farmers must be protected so that the monopoly of purchase by local processors does not become a ground for abuse and exploitation.

If it happens, it could discourage rubber cultivation, and negate the very problem the ban sought to correct.

The farmers will also need support to expand and improve production to meet installed processing capacity.

The processors need support too to expand and employ more youth.

Ultimately, this decision must make Ghana’s working space better.