Rubber market resumes with high opening price

Rubber farms took a break in July and resumed business operation with a high opening price in mid-September, according to Mon State’s rubber market.
Rubber tapping business halted for a while in the monsoon season. The prices stood at K1,550 per pound of Ribbed Smoked Sheet and K1,530 for sun-dried rubber at the closing time on 1 July 2023 in Mon State.
The market returned in mid-September and the opening price touched a high of K1,715 for sundried rubber and K1,735 for RSS.
Global demand for rubber, rubber production of the Southeast Asian nations and the market supply heavily influence Myanmar’s rubber prices.
The rubber price in Mon State, a major rubber production state in Myanmar, is closely tied to those factors as well, the traders elaborated.
Myanmar Sustainable Natural Rubber Association pointed out that Myanmar’s rubber production needs to strictly adhere to the Sustainable Natural Rubber (SNR) guideline to grasp a firm market share in the competitive international market.
Only natural rubber manufactured as per the SNR guideline can be placed in the international rubber market in 2030. Therefore, Myanmar’s rubber industry is required to conform to the SNR guideline.
Myanmar Sustainable Natural Rubber Association and Myanmar KOEI International Limited organized a coordination meeting at Summit Park View Hotel in Yangon on 16 August to develop a sustainable natural rubber initiative and set up principles to meet SNR criteria.
The United Nations adopted sustainable development goals that set out a framework of 17 goals in 2016 for social, economic and environmental aspects.
To implement the goals, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development laid down guidelines to assess environmental and human rights impacts as industrial rubber plantations for the tyre industry linked to deforestation, biodiversity risks and rubber supply chains.
Myanmar’s annual rubber production is estimated at 300,000 tonnes. Seventy per cent of rubber produced in Myanmar goes to China. It is also shipped to Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Viet Nam, the Republic of Korea, India, Japan, and other countries.
The association aims to achieve rubber exports of 300,000 tonnes in the current 2023-2024 financial year beginning 1 April.
The rubber production in the last FY 2022-2023 reached over 360,000 tonnes and more than 200,000 tonnes of rubber were shipped to foreign trade partners.
Rubber is commonly produced in Mon and Kayin states and Taninthayi, Bago, and Yangon regions in Myanmar. As per 2018-2019 rubber season data, there are over 1.628 million acres of rubber plantations in Myanmar, with Mon State accounting for 497,153 acres, followed by Taninthayi Region with 348,344 acres and Kayin State with 270,760 acres.
Myanmar bagged more than US$449 million in revenue in rubber exports in the previous financial year 2020-2021. — NN/EM