rubberwood

The acceptance of rubberwood as a sustainable, plantation-grown, environmentally friendly timber has contributed to its universal appeal. The most important uses are: furniture and furniture parts, parquet, paneling, wood-based panels (particleboard, cement and gypsum-bonded panels, medium-density fiberboard (MDF), kitchen and novelty items, sawn timber for general utility and fuel.Our Rubberwood BusinessAgro's entry into the rubberwood business is take advantage of significant regional inventories and trade flows to East Asia. In 2005, we were the first agribusiness to begin consultations with large rubber estates and the government of Liberia for the local establishment of a rubberwood industry. We anticipate strong growth as a result of our strength in the three key dimensions of the business: sourcing strengths, spread and depth of product species and marketing presence.We trade primarily in rubberwood round logs and sawn lumber. World trade in this category is about 12 million cubic meters with a value of about US$ 3 billion. We are involved in the entire value chain from contract logging of rubber plantations, through to logistics handling, processing, shipping and redistribution. We are involved in the sawn timber business in Guinea and have plans to invest in the downstream processing operations in Liberia and Cote d?Ivoire. We are building up a configuration of sourcing and processing facilities for rubberwood components and expect this business to become a large value generator in the years to come.