Thai rubber groups look to government for help with product certification

Thai-rubber-groupsRubber processing cooperatives in Thailand are seeking help from the government regarding rubber product certification to raise the confidence of traders and investors in the local industry.

The decision came after five rubber cooperatives in Surat Thani, a province in southern Thailand, faced problems with the certification of rubber processing products, which play a pivotal role in trading.

“Certification is important because it can the guarantee quality of our products. This is also in the trading regulations stipulated by the state,” Praphan Nakkling, manager of Cooperative Fund Rubber Phuang Phrom Khon Ltd in Khian Sa district, said.

“Therefore, we want the government to help us with the certification process, because this is beyond the capability of small cooperatives,”

Besides being a complex procedure, product certification was costly, he said.

Praphan said the cooperatives used raw rubber in the production of products such as rubber surfacing for sports fields and for traffic poles, as part of government-supported measures to offset plunging prices for commodity rubber over the past few years.

As the price of rubber sheets had fallen, the government had acted to boost the domestic rubber industry and promoted local rubber manufacturing in order to increase the value of rubber products.

The scheme was funded by state loans used to purchase machinery used in the manufacturing process, Praphan said.

His cooperative members alone collected more than 3,000 tonnes of latex each year.

The latex was processed into raw rubber sheets to be purchased by local plants in the province. After processing, the remaining second-rate rubber was to be sold to other factories.

However, when the products were put on sale those factories faced a problem with product certification, which affected the cooperatives’ business.

Praphan said rubber processing in the province currently centred on five local rubber cooperatives which produced a range of products such as rubber pillows and rubber bars.

Members of these cooperatives faced problems with the distribution of their products as factories were concerned about quality in the absence of product certification.

Choosak Aikpetch, acting rector of Suratthani Rajabhat University (SRU), said he had assigned university staff who specialise in the rubber industry and relevant fields to find a solution to the problem, which would improve the livelihoods of rubber planters.

Somprat Wuthijan, of the SRU’s Department of Academic Services for Local Development, said a study would be made of rubber tree cultivation in Thailand and a report submitted to the government so it could roll out suitable measures to help producers.

The study would also cover relevant issues such as the rubber industry itself and the changing environment and social situation, all of which affected rubber cultivation and modern agricultural strategy, he said.