Rubber: Jetty In Charge of SRC

Liberia-Following series of protests, destruction of properties which affected Salala Rubber Company (SRC), that led to millions of dollars’ worth of properties destroyed, Jetty Rubber LLC has taken over and gone to its rescue.

Prior to its takeover, there were plans by SCR to pull out or embark on a different business plan. The company has been down for several months, thus leaving hundreds of workers unemployed.

Realizing this, Jeety Rubber LLC, a subsidiary of Jeety Conglomerate, decided to purchase the company, thus avoiding further unemployment hike in the country.

A statement issued by Socfinaf S.A in Luxembourg on 27 over the weekend said Jeety Conglomerate, has purchased a 100% stake in Salala Rubber Corporation (SRC) and taken over the corporation from its previous Owner, Socfinaf S.A. The purchase of SRC was concluded effective August 26, 2024.

SOCFIN Group, also known as the Société Financière des Caoutchoucs is a holding company listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, it has direct and indirect interest in oil palm and rubber plantation operations and marketing of oil palm seeds in Asia and Africa and founded in 1909.

The statement said, henceforth, all-natural rubber harvested at SRC would no longer be processed within the Socfin Group or sold by its trading arm, Sogescol.  It further said, that as per the wish of the new owner, Jeety Rubber LLC, Socfin Group’s consulting arm, Socfinco shall remain as the managing agent of SRC for one year in order to ensure the appropriate transfer of technological know-how.

The Salala Rubber Corporation (SRC) plantation was established in 1959 and the Weala Rubber Company (WRC) factory was operational in 1962. However, the civil wars of the 1990s and early 2000s were the demise of the rubber industry. SRC was looted and the WRC factory was destroyed.

In 2007, Agrifinal merged Weala’s factory and Salala’s plantation. The Socfin Group then acquired the Salala Rubber Corporation (SRC) and invested to optimize the plantation and improve social infrastructure (houses, schools, health centers, etc.).

SRC sources its rubber from its own plantation, but also from the surrounding smallholders. Unfortunately, since 2011 the raw material provided by the smallholders and SRC has not been sufficient to keep Weala’s production unit operational. The factory has therefore been shut down and all output was  sent to LAC’s factory at 150 km southeast of Salala.

According to Socfinaf S.A, Jeety Rubber LLC recognizes the importance of matters relating to land compensation and access to sacred sites to the local communities and has pledged its support to Socfinaf which has indicated that despite the sale of SRC to Jeety Rubber LLC, it remains fully committed to SRC’s 2023 Action Plan regarding land compensation issues and access to sacred sites, based on the findings of the Earthworm Foundation on-site investigation.

Jeety Rubber LLC, a subsidiary of the Jeety Conglomerate based in Weala, Margibi County, buys and processes rubber into finished and semi-finished products, TSR 10, for shipment but it has struggled to buy enough latex cup lumps to operate its factory at full capacity. It can be recalled that Jeety Rubber LLC reported that it was not getting enough latex (cup lumps) to run the factory at optimum capacity.

The entity reported that it requires a minimum of 225 Tons of latex (cup lump) daily and 6,750 monthly to run the factory 24 hours, and further that it needed to stack a minimum of two months of cup lumps/latex supply in the factory to operate the factory at optimum capacity.

This purchase of SRC, a concessionaire, moves Jeety Rubber from the category of processor into the category of a processor and a concessionaire, thereby giving it immense leverage to achieve its goal of producing Made in Liberia rubber products, including latex gloves and tires in the short and long term.