Indonesia, the second largest rubber producer in the world, will decrease its production of rubber in 2012 down to 10 percent on the year to 2.8 million tones due to El Niño or dry weather conditions, according to the head of the Rubber industry association on Tuesday.
Daud Husni Bastari, the new chairman of the Indonesian Rubber Association told Reuters in an interview that the production of rubber will greatly decrease because it is too dry. He said that if the dryness is too severe, it means that the winter period will be longer which can affect the outputs of latex since the rubber trees shed more leaves during the winter.
It was already forecaster by Gapkindo earlier this year that the annual rubber production of Indonesia will decrease by 8 to 10 percent from 2.95 million tonnes in last year.
It was reported by the weather bureau of Indonesia last month that the country together with some parts of Australia and Africa, Southeast Asia and India will be suffering from dry weather but said that it will only have a limited impact on the country. About 90 percent of the rubber production in Indonesia is coming from small-scale farmers, with 70 percent of it coming from Sumatra.
Bastari said that the rubber export will decrease by 400,000 tonnes as the expected output this year is 2.1 million tonnes from 2.5 million tonnes last year. The decrease is also part of Thailand and Malaysia’s agreement on reducing the rubber sales to increase the price of rubber in the market. (PRA)