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ASEAN+3 Rubber Conference and Exhibition
Phuket 10-12 April, 2013
………………..
Introduction:
The first ASEAN+3 (China/India/Japan) Rubber Conference and Exhibition took
place over the period 10-12 April 2013 at the Hilton Arcadia Resort and Spa
Hotel, Phuket, Thailand. It was attended by more than 500 participants of which,
about 150 were from overseas. The choice of April 10 was also to coincide with
Thailand’s National Rubber Day in honour of Phraya Ratsadanupradit Mahisara
Phakdi (Kosimbi Na Ranong) who is regarded as the father of Thailand’s rubber
industry. There was a study tour organised for the final day in which participants
were invited to attend the official opening of a rubberised road project in Krabi
Province.
H.E. Yuttapong Charasathien, The Deputy Minister of Agriculture and
Cooperatives, Thailand officially inaugurated and launched the event. In his
opening address, he emphasised the socio-economic importance of the rubber
industry to Thailand. His Ministry will be deeply involved in enhancing
cooperation amongst rubber producing countries of ASEAN with a view to the
establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community targeted for 2015.
The Deputy Minister stated that, the Thailand government’s on-going 2009-2013
Rubber Development Plan includes eight strategic plans with specific targets
aimed at boosting competitiveness of the local industry and improving the welfare
of rubber farmers. Amongst others, the plans include the set-up of a Rubber City
on the border region of peninsula Malaysia and south Thailand, one of the several
points which was stated in the joint press statement of 28th
February 2013 in
Putrajaya, Malaysia after the Fifth Malaysia-Thailand Annual Consultation
between Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak of Malaysia
and Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra of Thailand.
Technical Sessions:
The official opening ceremony was followed by a series of technical sessions over
the next two days with 16 papers of extremely high quality, presented by experts
from the ASEAN+3 nations. The subjects ranged from overviews of Natural
Rubber (NR) production and consumption trends worldwide, specific trends in
several of the ASEAN+3 nations as well as technological innovations which need

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to be exploited for NR to remain competitive and even enhance its potential in the
market place in relation to Synthetic Rubber (SR).
The Secretary General of the International Rubber Study Group (IRSG), Dr
Stephen V Evans, pointed out what he termed the ‘Natural Rubber Imbalance’, a
comparison of Production versus Consumption in each producing country. He
proposed one way to tackle this issue was to attract ‘Inward Investment’ i.e. to
provide the right conditions for NR consumers to invest in producing countries
and even out this imbalance.
Dr Hidde Smit paper on ‘The Asian Rubber Industry: Perspectives for
Consumption, Production and Prices’ provided data from both the NR and SR
producers. He was of the opinion that in the medium term, NR prices are likely to
around USD 2 50/kg. Mr Yium Tavarolit of the International Rubber Consortium
explained how co-operation between Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia has
allowed stabilising NR prices to sustainable and remunerative levels for farmers
while at the same time balancing the supply demand situation. He went on to
suggest that IRCo could be expanded to include other NR producing countries.
Madam Sheela Thomas, Chairman of The Rubber Board of India presented the
overall situation in the Indian rubber industry, where all rubber produced is
consumed within India. In fact there was need to import some NR to cope with
industry demand. India has the highest land productivity in the world at present,
exceeding 1,800kg of NR/ha/year. The biggest limitation however, is availability
of suitable land to expand rubber planting. R&D in widening the existing genetic
base and use of molecular biology are some of the approaches being adopted by
the Rubber Research Institute of India (RRII) to further boost productivity.
Mr Hla Myint, Advisor of the Rubber Planters and Producers of Myanmar,
presented up-to-date information on the tremendous increase in rubber planting
taking place in his country. He stated that the market oriented policy of the
Myanmar Government, since 1988, has helped to improve the growth of the
rubber industry there. Mr Daud Husni Bastari of GAPKINDO, the Indonesian
Rubber Association explained that Indonesia has very few limitations faced by
other NR producers. Land and labour is plentiful and soil suitability is excellent.
The Indonesian farmer is generally proud of the fact that his production is viewed
as an environment friendly activity.

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In the session on Downstream Challenges, Dr Tran Thi Thuy Hoa from the
Vietnam Rubber Association (VRA) gave an account of the situation in her
country. Some of the problems faced by the Natural Rubber sector are limited
agricultural extension efforts, NR quality not consistently meeting international
standards and low consumption within Vietnam. Ms Mary Xu, from the Secretary
General of the China Rubber Industry Association, gave an extensive picture of
the tyre industry in China. Even though, China is the largest tyre producer in the
world, she showed data to show the reducing growth of the Chinese tyre industry
in the last couple of years.
Datuk Dr Ong Eng Long, Technical Advisor from KOSSAN Rubber, Malaysia
explained how several strategies were formulated and regularly reviewed by the
Malaysian government and relevant stakeholders, in order to enhance the viability
of the local rubber industry. Dr James Jacob, Director of Rubber Research
Institute of India explained how in the last 8 years, his organisation has been
involved in assessing, non-invasive techniques, for application in the NR
upstream sector. Taking advantage of India’s strong satellite sensing capability, he
provided examples of usage of satellite based remote-sensing, Geographical
Information System, mathematical modelling, etc. to tackle specific issues faced
by the rubber growing sector.
Mr Gunther Lottman from Grupo Agroindustrial Occidente, Guatemala presented
the situation in his country where the development of rubber plantations is based
on the principles of Forest Stewardship Circle (FSC). This approach tries to
ensure sustainability, environment friendliness and reasonable remuneration to the
grower. Mr Joseph John of KAPVL, India presented his expertise in trying to
achieve high productivity in rubber planting. This included using root trainer
nursery techniques, applying an initial planting density of 600 trees/ha, observing
strict tapping and harvesting policies to ultimately providing high yields, well
above the current levels.
Dr Krisda Suchiva, Deputy Director of the National Metal and Materials
Technology Centre and of Mahidol University, Thailand compared critically, NR
in terms of its quality aspects compared to SR as well as some of its performance
characteristics. He felt strongly that there must be more effort in R&D on NR to
match and even exceed SR in terms of broadening its market position. Ms
Nopmanee Suvannang gave an excellent presentation on the efforts of the Land
Development Department, Thailand in addressing rubber growing issues in sandy
soils of the newly opened north-east region of Thailand. Collaborative work with
a French team from IRD has already started addressing some of these problems.

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The outcome of her work is expected to enable planting to be carried out in soils
currently considered less than optimal for rubber.
Dr Ranjit Matthan of Polymer Consultancy Services provided much positive feel
for the potential of Natural Rubber. He pointed out that from the time Synthetic
Rubber was developed during the war years, the NR/SR relationship went through
several phases, namely the Substitution Phase, Competitive Phase,
Complimentary Phase to a Symbiotic Phase. He is convinced that with the
commercialisation of several R&D findings that has been on-going in NR, must
benefit the NR Industry in the medium to long-term. He cited examples of Latex-
masterbatch, Green Chemistry and Nano Technology, which when applied
commercially will enable NR to retake the technical advantage it had over SR,
until about 15 years ago. The advent of Smart Natural Rubber, where products
made can display temperature, pressure etc. and the expected uptake of Silica
Tyres to match the colour of cars, are examples quoted by him to show that NR
can match and even overtake SR as the material of choice in various key sectors
of rubber consumption.
Panel Discussion:
The Conference ended with a panel discussion moderated by Dr Jay Nambiar and
included the following prominent participants viz.
1. Dr Pongsak Kerdvongbundit, Thailand,
2. Datuk Dr Ong Eng Long, Malaysia,
3. Madam Sheela Thomas, India,
4. Ms Mary Xu Wen, China,
5. Mr Anuar Karim, Malaysia,
6. Mr Hla Myint, Myanmar and
7. H.E. Ly Phalla, Kampuchea
The panel addressed the issue of ‘Interactions on Directions and Growth in the
Rubber Industry of ASEAN+3.’

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Summary:
Some of the points that emerged from the panel discussion were:
The importance of taking full advantage of the ‘Green’ aspects of NR in its
promotion as an alternative to SR;
To not agree in the selective imposition of burdens by consumers and
NGOs on NR cultivation, production and manufacture, which is likely to
place the NR industry at a disadvantage to SR;
The joint public-private effort in the set-up of the Rubber City concept
between Thailand and Malaysia;
The need for incentives to make it attractive for the private sector to
commit themselves to the Rubber City concept as well as having a major
player as the anchor tenant with cluster units in support;
The critical importance of highly focused R&D to develop NR grades that
can be used in conjunction with SR grades to produce high-value industrial
rubber goods in order to broaden the product base of NR, including
addressing the distinct possibility of reduced NR and SR consumption as
tyre technology improves;
Initiating dialogue between the NR and SR industries in order to enhance
their symbiotic relationship, leading to a win-win situation for both sectors;
To ever keeping in mind the need for steps that reduce the volatility of
rubber prices and supply-demand imbalances;
Taking advantage of the potential for economic growth being greater in the
ASEAN+3 region rather than in the West;