Sifca Group, an Ivory Coast agribusiness company, said its exports of rubber from Liberia have been halted as a result of the closing of land borders, a step meant to control the spread of an Ebola outbreak.
“Our staff is still working on the plantation but the production is currently blocked at the border with Ivory Coast,” Henriette Billon, a spokeswoman for the Abidjan-based company, said in a phone interview yesterday.
Sifca exports its rubber output from Liberia through the western Ivorian port of San Pedro, Billon said. It also has a palm oil plant in Liberia that’s not yet in production. The company, which also has operations in Ghana and Nigeria, produces rubber, palm oil and sugar.
Sifca, which employs 2,000 people in Liberia in its rubber and palm oil plants, is discussing whether to move its employees in Liberia, Billon said. Sifca has Ivorian and French expatriates in Liberia, she said.
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The Ebola outbreak in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria has infected 1,975 people and killed 1,069, according to the World Health Organization.
– Bloomberg
