A former General Secretary of the General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU), Edward Kareweh, has raised serious concerns about the devastating impact of illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey, on rubber production in Ghana.

Speaking on Breakfast Daily on Channel One TV on Friday, September 19, 2025, Mr. Kareweh said galamsey has become the biggest threat to the survival of the industry, surpassing earlier challenges such as cocoa and oil palm expansion.

“Mainly, it used to be oil palm and cocoa because rubber grows where other crops also grow, so when you expand oil palm, then the land available for rubber expansion is taken away; if you expand cocoa production, then that land is also taken away. So they used to be that competition,” he explained.

He warned that the emergence of modern galamsey, which he described as “dangerous,” has escalated the threat by directly destroying farmlands and plantations.

“So these were the threats that was there but eventually one threat then came which is dangerous than all of them—galamsey. The advent of the modern-day galamsey is destroying existing rubber plantations, oil palm plantations and cocoa plantations,” he stressed.

Mr. Kareweh added that some rubber farmers have resorted to selling off their plantations to illegal miners, further compounding the problem.

In recent times, concerns have mounted over declining rubber production. The Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) has also cautioned that rubber processing plants across the country face imminent collapse due to the severe shortage of raw materials.