I am very pleased to announce the CIRAD/BioWooEB conference on the topic of alternative sources of natural rubber, which will be held from November 4th to 6th, 2019, in Montpellier, France.

The last conference organized by CIRAD on the same topic was in October 2010 in Montpellier as part of the European EU-PEARLS project. The 2019 international conference is open to researchers, farmers, goverment institutions, industrialists and students with an interest in natural rubber (NR) alternatives, guayule (Parthenium argentatum) and Russian or Kazakh dandelion (Taraxacum kok sagyz), and their  potential commercial development worldwide. Europe imports 1.2 million tons of hevea NR each year and is dependant on Asia for  90% of  its NR import. NR is listed in Europe as a critical material, which justifies an interest in developing over the next 5 to 10 years, new agricultural commodities such as guayule  for mediterranean or semi-arid climates and Kz dandelion for continental climates.

https://diacpnr.sciencesconf.org/