Natural rubber group welcomes Myanmar as new member

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Myanmar has joined the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries as the ANRPC’s 13th member.

For the 12 months ended June 2018, Myanmar produced 242,000 metric tons of natural rubber, harvesting from trees that sit on roughly 768,000 acres throughout the country.

At that rate, Myanmar is considered the ANRPC’s seventh largest producer. The 13 countries that are members of the ANRPC represent 90.5 percent of the global NR output, the association said.

Myanmar’s annual yield is low — about 777 kilograms per hectacre — because many plantations are planted with clones with low-yield potential, according to the ANRPC.

However, the association noted that Myanmar also has 854,620 acres hectares of young rubber plants that have not attained yielding maturity. It expects the country’s annual NR production to exceed 500,000 metric tons within six years, once the youngest trees have been tapped.

Myanmar exports about 150,000 tons of natural rubber annually.

The country also has four tire manufacturing facilities, three of which are state-owned.

The next ANRPC assembly and the 11th annual rubber conference will beheld in Chiang Rai, Thailand, Oct. 8-13. The rubber conference, planned for Oct. 8, will explore emerging megatrends and how the industry can adapt.