Rubber farmers in the northeast of Thailand have been concerned over recent rumours that two major tyre manufacturers are stopping natural rubber orders from the area due to the use of sulphuric acid in the production process which results in rubber with substandard quality.
Thailand’s Agriculture and Cooperative Minister, Gen. Chatchai Sarikalaya, further elaborated on the rumours that the two tyre manufacturers are putting their plans to construct automobile production facilities valued at more than 2 billion Baht in the northeastern part of the country on hold, in addition to halting rubber orders.
According to the minister, the manufacturers expressed dissatisfaction when they discovered that more than 80% of rubber producers in the northeast of Thailand added sulphuric acid to latex.
Farmers in the north and northeast regions of the country usually put a drop of sulphuric acid in the rubber latex to make it coagulate more quickly before selling it as cup lumps to rubber factories.
The sulphuric acid, however, reduces the rubber’s flexibility and causes problems on the processing lines for the major tyre makers, forcing them to change the substance mixing ratio. That, in turn, results in rising production costs. The practise also results in shorter life expectancy of automotive tyres.
The rumours have also raised concerns regarding the possibility of falling consumption that could lead to lower prices at a time when rubber prices are already in a depressed state.
“We need to step up our campaign to encourage farmers to stop using sulphuric acid as it not only cuts the quality of the rubber latex they have tapped, but also reduces the lifetime of the rubber trees,” the minister said.
He has also ordered the Rubber Authority of Thailand (RAT) to further investigate and educate the region’s rubber planters to stop adding sulphuric acid to rubber.
But Thiratch Sooksa-art, director-general of the Rubber Authority of Thailand, assured that the two tyre manufacturers have not refused to buy natural rubber as was rumoured. He also added that they have been consistently campaigning for rubber planters to stop using sulphuric acid as a coagulating agent for sometime now.
A senior expert at the Rubber Research Institute also said that the country’s Agriculture Ministry needs to better inform the farmers to stop using sulphuric acid to help keep Thailand’s rubber export market intact.