The International Tripartite Rubber Council (ITRC) will meet in Thailand this month to discuss ways to reduce the volatility in rubber prices and containment of output.
Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Mah Siew Keong said the SMR rubber price had risen in the last few months from RM4.00 per kg to RM7.70 per kg.
The ITRC comprises Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Mah Siew Keong said the SMR rubber price had risen in the last few months from RM4.00 per kg to RM7.70 per kg.
“Seeing how rubber prices are better now, we need to discuss with the other producing countries in Thailand, ways to contain production,” he told reporters at the launch of the RRIMETER, a product of the Malaysian Rubber Board (MRB), here today reported Bernama.
Mah said the RRIMETER is a rapid, reliable and accurate instrument to determine rubber and non-rubber content in latex and raw rubber that provides results within 45 seconds.
The instrument was jointly developed through a collaboration between the MRB and Denmark-based Foss, a global provider of high-tech, analytical solutions used mainly in the agricultural and food industries.
Mah said the ITRC would also discuss on the development of rubberised roads as Thailand intended to start building them.
“I do believe that the use of RRIMETER would minimise the loss of dry rubber content (DRC).
“For smallholders, RRIMETER will be of great advantage, primarily because it is able to provide a more accurate DRC value which subsequently will give them a better income,” he said.
In 2015, the smallholding sector produced 94 per cent or 678,680 tonnes of Malaysia’s total rubber output of 722,000 tonnes.
Mah believes that the use of technology through research and development plays a vital role in driving the growth of the rubber sector under the National Key Economic Area.
