SINGAPORE—Food and agriculture company Olam International is divesting its natural rubber business as part of a six-year restructuring strategy.
Under the 2019-2024 streamlining plan, the group will divest its rubber, sugar, wood-products and fertilizer businesses, Olam said in a news release. The divestment process is expected to save around $1.6 billion.
Olam's rubber business includes a crumb rubber processing facility in the Ivory Coast, third-party sourcing of NR, and a JV plantation in Gabon.
Ivory Coast affiliate Societe Agro Industrielle de la Comoe sources NR from about 2,000 smallholder farmers in the country and processes the material to two grades of technically specified rubber. Under third-party trading, Olam also imports and exports NR in blocks, sheets and latex form.
Olam has sourcing offices in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and west Africa, and a sales presence in China, India, Europe and Singapore.
The company also has around 11,000 hectares of rubber plantations under a joint venture business with the government of Gabon.