The cooperation between three major rubber producers — Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand — in the form of International Tripartite Rubber Council (ITRC) is expected to stabilise the declining prices of natural rubber.
Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas said the ITRC is a forum to discuss the stabilisation of rubber production and help strengthen rubber prices.
“The ITRC had proposed the implementation of agreed export tonnage scheme to control exports through quota fixation.
“The mechanism has been implemented from October 2012 to end of March last year.
In that period, all the three nations collectively had limited natural rubber exportation by 300,000 tonnes,” he said in a written reply to Jelebu MP Zainudin Ismail at the Dewan Rakyat, yesterday.
Uggah Embas said the ITRC had also implemented supply management scheme as a longterm plan to balance demand against global supply, to determine a level of profitable rubber price.
“Under the scheme, all three ITRC nations will get to control the supply of global natural rubber through replanting programme and well-planned fresh planting exercise,” the minister added.
He said the government will continue to monitor the rubber price movement, in order for the prices at the farm gate to resemble the real market condition.
The government, through the ministry and Malaysian Rubber Board, is drawing strategies to increase the effectiveness of supply chain between the manufacturer and smallscale planters.
This is due to the Malaysian government’s understanding of the impact as a result of rubber price decline on planters, especially the small-scale ones.
Source: The Malaysian Reserve
Published: 26 Mar 2014