AN estimated P100 billion is required to make the Philippines one of the top rubber producers in the world, according to the Philippine Rubber Industries Association Inc. (PRIA).

At the sidelines of a press conference on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Rubber Conference, which will be held in June, PRIA president Kwan Ming Dee noted that around P100,000 is needed to develop a one-hectare plot.

Under the National Rubber Development Program conceptualized by the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Philippine government is targeting to expand rubber plantations to 1 million hectares by 2016. The program was launched in 2006.

For his part, Dandy Calvez of Traders Trust International said farmers need to be encouraged to plant rubber, especially since prices are going up.

“A kilo of low-grade rubber can fetch around P100 per kilogram. The problem is, most farmers are more partial to planting cash crops because it will not take them long to earn money,” said Calvez.

Paul Martin Yeo, organizing chairman of the Asean Rubber Conference 2008, said now is the best time for Filipino farmers to take advantage of rubber planting because demand will grow by 3 percent annually.

“China’s demand for rubber alone, grows by 7 percent annually,” said Yeo. He noted that world demand for rubber is now at 9.8 million metric tons (MMT).

The DA itself, however, acknowledged that the long gestation period of rubber is one of the most significant challenges that the department has to contend with in implementing the program. It takes one rubber tree seven years before it can be productive as against cash crops like bananas.

Also, productivity is generally low as one tree can yield only 2 to 2.5 metric tons (MT) of natural rubber.

Aside from these, the DA said farmers are not too keen on planting rubber because of the limited value-adding activities for rubber products, lack of defined quality standards for rubber products, limited access to credit and financing, and an “absence of an enabling business that will attract investments.”

Currently, the Philippines has some 96,000 hectares of rubber plantation that yielded more than 380,000 MT of natural rubber last year.

Local rubber producers were able to export some 200,000 MT of various rubber products. This year traders expect exports of natural rubber to remain at 200,000 MT.

Tire manufacturers based in the Philippines like Goodyear and Dunlop source some of their tire requirements from the local rubber producers.

Traders said 70 percent of the country’s rubber production goes to tire manufacturers while the rest are used for manufacturing other rubber products like gloves and rubber shoes.

THE National Land Use Committee (NLUC) will review the proposal submitted by the Department of Agriculture (DA) to the Office of the President to declare all rice lands in the Philippines as protected areas.

INSTEAD of pursuing active procurement of rice imports, the Department of Agriculture (DA) must use the scarce financial resources of the government to build up sufficient rice supply from domestic production, a militant legislator said Thursday.

AN estimated P100 billion is required to make the Philippines one of the top rubber producers in the world, according to the Philippine Rubber Industries Association Inc. (PRIA).

THE Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) assures the public that freshwater fishes such as dalag, bangus, tilapia, ayungin, big head and common carp caught or farmed in the waters of Laguna de Bay are safe for human consumption.

ENVIRONMENT Secretary Lito Atienza has appealed to local officials of Nueva Vizcaya, led by Gov. Luisa Lloren Cuaresma, to consider the potential loss to the province in terms of various economic benefits on their decision to stop an ongoing mining project in the town of Kasibu.