Feature: Chinese agro-processing plants help upgrade rubber industry in Cote d'Ivoire

ABIDJAN, June 19 (Xinhua) -- Early in the morning, Yobouet Gnagne Roland, chairman of a rubber cooperative in Cote d'Ivoire, rushed to deliver cup lumps that were freshly harvested to a Chinese rubber processing factory near the southern city of Dabou, feeling tired and happy.

As the rubber tapping season commences in June, trucks are lined up outside the factory every day, waiting to offload locally sourced natural rubber, which will be processed into standard rubber at the plants and then shipped to China where the materials will be made into various rubber products, such as tyres and toys.