A leader of southern rubber growers has warned a mass rally could be organised early in January to protest against the government’s handling of natural rubber prices and for the removal of Deputy Agricultural and Cooperatives Minister Amnuay Patise.
Tosapol Khwanrod, head of a network of southern rubber and oil palm growers in the South, said farmers were surprised and upset by an influx of 856 tonnes of natural rubber into the central rubber market in Nakhon Si Thammarat province on Dec 22, and another 600 tonnes into the central rubber market in Surat Thani province on Dec 24.
Mr Amnuay was unable to explain on the two influxes, he said.
He also complained that the government’s announcement setting the price of natural rubber sheets at 60 baht per kilogramme was preventing the price from increasing above that figure.
Mr Tosapol wanted Mr Amnuay, who supervises the rubber price, to decide by Jan 4 if he still deserved to stay in office.
Rubber farmers were in severe financial trouble and if Mr Amnuay remained in office they would demonstrate to demand his removal, said Mr Tosapol, who led rubber farmers’ protests in Nakhon Si Thammarat province last year.
But their threat might prove unnecessary soon. Bloomberg reported in world markets, rubber has entered a bull market as flooding across Malaysia and parts of Thailand hurt supplies.
Rubber for June delivery rallied 3.8% to 213.3 yen a kilogramme ($1,773 a tonne) on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange, the highest settlement since July 3. Futures rose 22% from a five-year low in October, meeting the threshold for a bull market with a gain of at least 20%.
Heavy rains flooded parts of Malaysia and southern Thailand over the past two weeks, and Commodity Weather Group predicted the falls will continue for at least another week.
Thailand is the world’s largest rubber exporter and neighbour Malaysia is the biggest shipper of palm oil after Indonesia, where some rubber exporters are in talks with buyers to reschedule shipments because of rains.
Some Indonesian rubber exporters are in talks with buyers to reschedule shipments, Rusdan Dalimunthe, executive director of the Rubber Association of Indonesia, or Gapkindo, said in a phone interview from Jakarta on Tuesday. Rubber production may drop 30% because of rain and floods, Mr Dalimunthe said.
Rubber supplies in Thailand and Malaysia will contract by at least 100,000 tonnes a month if floods persist, International Rubber Consortium CEO Yium Tavarolit said yesterday. The group is the operating arm of the International Tripartite Rubber Council, which represents governments and exporters from Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Rubber futures rose 16% this quarter, the first advance since 2013, after Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia took steps to shore up prices from the five-year low in October. Producer groups from the top suppliers pledged to refrain from selling below $1.50 a kg. The three nations also agreed to cut exports from next year to drain supplies.