SEPT 4 proved to be another sad day for the more than 200,000 rubber smallholders in the country, as news of the drastic decline in the world rubber price hit the headlines again.
It was reported that in two months, the price of cup lump rubber dropped from RM3.20 per kg to RM2.30 per kg.
The price is simply not enough to support smallholders and their families.
It is much worse if you are just a rubber tapper and not a smallholder, as you will get only half the proceeds.
On average, a tapper working 18 days a month brings home a meagre RM700.
With the rise in living costs, rubber tappers will be pushed further down the poverty ladder.
Smallholders are not asking for much, just that the price of cup lump rubber be maintained at above RM3 per kg.
With climate uncertainties and flooding during the monsoon months, one can understand their growing restlessness.
The irony of it all is that while rubber smallholders are suffering, downstream rubber product manufacturers benefit from the resurgence in demand as the global economy recovers from the lull during the pandemic.
By right, they should also be worried because if fewer smallholders are tapping rubber, the world supply will also decline.
We must remember that natural rubber remains a sought-after material in many products.
It has been suggested by some that one strategy would involve the government buying rubber fromsmallholders at a fixed higher price.
This may be funded by the entire downstream rubber industry, but keeping the rubber as stock may not be a good idea.
This is because in a market
with high inventories the world price will continue to be suppressed, which will make things worse.
Another strategy is to use excess rubber in roads, as we spend a lot on road repair and maintenance year in and year out.
I have observed that refilling potholes accounts for much of the maintenance costs.
The government should consider incorporating rubber in the road repair formulations.
Studies by the Malaysian Rubber Board have shown that the durability of roads can be improved significantly by using a rubberised bitumen mix.
The more important thing is that a high volume of cup lump rubber can be used directly. We should encourage all natural rubber-producing countries to do the same.
That would take away a high volume of rubber from the stock and prop up world prices.
The Bangkok-based International Rubber Consortium, funded by Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, is supposed to manage stock levels.
However, it is dysfunctional and has never worked, so it may be time to close that organisation.
Another threat to the production of natural rubber has also emerged.
I am referring to the Pestalotiopsis leaf disease, which has been spreading in rubber-producing-countries lately.
Rubber agrono-mists have confirmed that this debilitating disease can have serious consequences for rubber yield.
Many studies have predicted a yield decline of up to 25 per cent if the disease is left unattended.
Unless the right measures are developed to deal with this disease, the world supply of natural rubber will be adversely affected.
It is in the interest of the world's rubber industry to take this potential supply disruption seriously.
We have not even touched on the supply threats to synthetic rubber, as the world pushes or NetZero.
NetZero will lead to a decline in the supply of fossil-based synthetic rubber (SR).
The fact that there are many applications that do not have a substitute for SR should cause concern in product manufacturers.
Whatever it is, there is a strong message here that everyone must work together to ensure a sustained supply of rubber for the industry.
The writer is a professor at the Tan Sri Omar Centre for STI Policy, UCSI University
