RP eyes natural rubber production increase

The Philippines eyes an increase in rubber production this year due to higher demand for tires, footwear, and other rubber-made products, the country’s agriculture department said. The country “remains optimistic" about meeting its full-year rubber production goals of 440,600 tons of rubber, 7.2 percent higher than last year’s output, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said. In 2008, output reached 411,000 MTs, 1.72 percent higher than the previous year’s 404,070 MTs. However, the total production value fell by more than seven percent to P16.03 billion last year from P17.26 billion in 2007 owing to lower commodity prices. For the first six months this year, rubber harvest declined slightly, reaching 69,730 MTs, lower than 169,980 MT during the same period last year. Although the Philippines still lags behind its regional counterparts, Manila seeks to become a “major player" in the coming years, Yap said. “Western Mindanao…is home to nearly half of the country’s 123,300 hectares of rubber farms," he added. To this end, the government has begun a a 10-year National Rubber Development Program in 2006, a program intended to enhance the sector’s productivity and competitiveness. Natural rubber production remains an emerging industry in the Philippines even though it started growing trees at around the same time as Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. These three nations produce 75 percent of the global rubber output. An estimated 190,000 Filipinos depend on the industry for their livelihood, with 38,000 families into rubber farming, 18,000 working as part-time off-farmers and another 20,000 being employed as tappers. In the meantime, the Philippines’ 30 existing rubber processing centers provide jobs for 600 processors and 700 buyers and traders. Last year, the Philippines exported 25 million kilos of latex, rubber plates, and other rubber products worth $40.5 million, which were shipped mostly to China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia. - GMANews.TV