Cambodian rubber exports up 21%

Cambodian rubber exports rose 21 per cent during the first half of 2018, according to the Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture.

The data shows that local producers exported 84,419 tonnes of rubber during the first six months of this year, an increase of 14,376 tonnes compared to a year earlier. Total rubber cultivation was also up, at 436,299 hectares.

During the same period the price of rubber fell, with the median export price on natural rubber down 18.98 per cent year-on-year to $1,434 per tonnes.

During a presentation on 15 July 2018, Association for Rubber Development in Cambodia secretary general Men Sopheak called for international investors:

“The current price of rubber is satisfactory for farmers, but it is still not profitable for investors who pumped in millions of dollars and had to sell in order to pay for labour costs. We need international investors to produce the finished products in order to survive in the rubber industry,” he said.

Cambodia exports natural rubber to Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and China. The southeast Asian country has 436,299 hectares of rubber plantations in which 173,017 hectares are mature enough to be harvested.