ABIDJAN Dec 5 (Reuters) – Ivory Coast exported 416,231 tonnes of natural rubber in the first ten months of the year to Oct. 31, up about 18 percent from the same period in the previous year, provisional port data showed on Monday.
Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa producer, is also Africa’s leading grower of natural rubber.
Exports have grown in recent years as farmers, lured by the promise of more stable incomes, have increasingly switched from cocoa.
Following are port figures in tonnes:
| Oct 2016 | Sept 2016 | Oct 2015 | |
| Abidjan | 35,906 | 35,748 | 20,626 |
| San Pedro | 19,416 | 19,100 | 22,395 |
| Total | 55,322 | 54,848 | 43,021 |
| Cumulative from Ja | 416,231 | 360,909 | 353,712 |
NOTE: October data for Abidjan is provisional and subject to revision. (Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Editing by Nellie Peyton and Louise Heavens)
