By Anant Thawatchaipracha
1 June 2010 - Malaysia plans to double its natural rubber production to 1.8 million tonnes in 2020, said Tan Sri Bernard Giluk Dompok, the Malaysian Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities, when he launched the Strategies for the Malaysian Rubber Industry and the Malaysian Rubber Board for 2010-2020 in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday 18 May 2020.
Malaysia produced 846,900 tonnes of natural rubber in 2009 and expected production in 2010 to increase by 5.9% to 900,000 tonnes.
To meet the production target the plan strategies to increase productivity by 1.8 tonnes per hectare per year by 2020, from the current level of about 1.4 tonnes per hectare per year and also expansion of hectarage to 1.2 million hectares with a tappable area of 1 million hectares, from the current hectarage of 1 million hectares with a tappable area of about 0.7 million hectares.
The plan also envisage increasing rubber replanting to 40,000 hectares yearly from the current 20,000 hectares, expanding existing rubber plantations and opening new rubber areas, especially in the states of Sarawak and Sabah on the island of Borneo and also converting idle lands into rubber plantations.
It also include increasing and maintaining tapping to 26 days a month and raising the number of trees per hectare to 550 from the current 350-400 trees per hectare.
The Minister also said that the Malaysian downstream rubber industry must venture into new sources of growth as the current model was too narrow based, with almost 80 % of exports consisting of latex dipped rubber goods.
Malaysia, he said, have the technological advantage and therefore the potential to become a leading hub for rubber technologies and rubber product manufacturing.
(Irco.biz)
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