Int’l council meeting to focus on rubber price slump: minister

MUMBAI (June 26): The International Tripartite Rubber Council (ITRC) meeting expected to be held next month in Malaysia, will focus on the slump in global rubber prices, said Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister, Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas.

“The strategies we have to take, will depend on agreement among the three major rubber producing countries, and we hope the discussions on controlling stocks through the supply and demand concept, will go through,” he told a press conference, in conjunction with the Malaysia-India Palm Oil Trade Fair and Seminar (POTS) 2014, here today.

“All of us want the price to be slightly higher. If all the producing countries contribute by controlling the production of rubber, we can push the price a bit higher,” he added.

Uggah said that the producing countries can adopt various strategies to push the price up, such as controlling production and replanting.

“For Malaysia, we are currently replanting about 40,000 hectares this year, in order to reduce our production, and we will continue (with replanting) next year.

“Among the ITRC countries, we are currently encouraging each other to do research on using more rubber, as its use is quite limited, currently,” he said.

Meanwhile, Uggah said that he will meet the Indian Rubber Board on Tuesday, to discuss on methods to manage the impact of low rubber prices on rubber tappers.

Themed “Managing Challenges and Creating Opportunities through Malaysian Palm Oil”, the Malaysia-India POTS 2014 — the 33rd in the series, is aimed at highlighting issues of common interest, besides exploring new opportunities to expand business activities.

The two-day event is jointly organised by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council and Malaysia Palm Oil Board, with support of the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India.

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