KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 4): The International Tripartite Rubber Council (ITRC), comprising Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, will implement the Agreed Export Tonnage Scheme beginning March 1, 2016 to boost natural rubber (NR) prices.
Under the scheme, the three major NR producing countries will withdraw exports of 615,000 tonnes of natural rubber for six months from March 1 – Aug 31, ITRC said in a statement today.
“In addition to address the oversupply of NR, we also agree to increase domestic consumption of NR. These include the use of NR for road construction, rail pads for railway construction and other suitable areas.
“We are optimistic with joint implementation of these measures, the rubber price will recover and continue to be fair and remunerative to all smallholders and other stakeholders in the NR industry. This implementation will be closely monitored by the ITRC Monitoring Committee,” ITRC said.
ITRC said it was concerned about declining NR prices, which had a direct impact on rubber smallholders’ income.
The Malaysian Rubber Board’s centrifuged latex was traded at RM3.64 a kg as at 12:45pm today. Over the last one year, prices have declined to current levels, from an intraday high of RM5.12 per kg on June 4, 2015.
