Malaysian replanting and new plantations aim at controlling rubber supply

ERJ staff report (BC)

Kuching, Malaysia – The Malaysian Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry aims to replant 37,282 hectares of rubber and open 13,000 hectares of new rubber plantations in the country during 2013, this year, the Dewan Negara [Malaysian Senate] was told on 23 July by Deputy Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Kasnon,according to The Borneo Post.

She said the programme, aimed at controlling global natural rubber supply, is being implemented in collaboration with two other major rubber-producing countries in Asean, namely Thailand and Indonesia.

“Last year, the programme saw the replanting 36,470 hectares of rubber and the opening of 12,802 hectares of new plantations,” she is reported as saying in reply to a question from Senator Datuk Boon Som Inong.

The senator had wanted to know the latest rubber prices; the cause of the fall in rubber prices; the mechanism to stabilise the prices and whether Asean could determine the prices of rubber in accordance with its position as the world’s leading producer of the commodity.

Kasnon is reported as saying that though Asean member nations could not determine the prices of rubber as there was no pact among them on the matter, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia had established collaboration under the International Tripartite Rubber Council (ITRC) to stabilise rubber prices.

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Full story from The Borneo Post