Natural Rubber Trends & Statistics for May 2010
It gives me immense pleasure in sharing with the users of the Natural Rubber Trends & Statistics that Republic of the Philippines has acceded to the ANRPC as a Member, taking the membership strength of this 40-year old inter-governmental organization to 11. The Philippines now has about 130,000 hectare of rubber area, producing annually about 420,000 tonne of latex in wet weight which is approximately equivalent to 125,000 tonne of dry rubber content. Under an ongoing National Rubber Development Programme, the government plans to expand the cultivation to 500,000 hectare and improve the average annual yield from the present level of around 1 tonne per hectare to 2 tonne per hectare by 2016. The joining of a country having such a good potential in natural rubber supply, provides opportunity for a further expansion in the data coverage and information network of the ANRPC.
The Association’s third Annual Rubber Conference is scheduled to be held on October 6. The Government of India will host this event in Kochi (Cochin), Kerala State. As an international meeting point of all stakeholders of the global rubber industry, the Conference would be an ideal platform for interacting with policy makers, industry players and commodity analysts across countries. While the participation is open to the private sector and free of charges, it is limited to 250 invitees only. The users of this publication who are seriously interested in attending the Conference are requested to contact the Secretariat for the purpose. Detailed programme of the Conference would be available in the next issue of this publication. The Association’s 33rd Session of the Assembly and annual meetings of the Executive Committee and two technical committees are also scheduled to be held in the same week. The meeting of the Information & Statistics Committee, to be attended by the experts from all Member Governments, will review the quality and coverage of the data published by the Association.
At the initiative of the Association, Member Governments are in the process of equipping their statistical team for preparing scientific long-term forecasts of NR supply in their respective countries. Training-cum-workshops have been organized for the purpose in Vietnam and Malaysia in May. Cambodia and Indonesia are expected to organize the programme in September.
While presenting this year’s fifth issue of Natural Rubber Trends & Statistics, I would like to place on record the Association’s gratitude to statistical correspondents in Member Governments for their valuable support by promptly supplying all the data.
Sd/-
Kuala Lumpur Prof. Dr. Djoko Said Damardjati
May 25, 2010 Secretary-General