A woman taps a rubber tree at a plantation in Beranang, near Kuala Lumpur, in this February 3, 2009 file picture. — Reuters pic
Apart from that, the government also implemented the pricing mechanism at the farm by providing an allocation of RM6.4 million as working capital to the cooperatives for the purpose of rubber transactions. This mechanism can reduce the layer of buyers and offer a cup lump price at an average of 10 sen to 20 sen per kilogramme higher than other rubber buyers.
The data from the Malaysian Rubber Board is supported by the report of the Department of Statistics Malaysia in the monthly rubber statistics which showed that the production of NR increased by 3.7 per cent in September 2020 to 46,187 tonnes from 44,543 tonnes in the previous month. For latex-in-bulk, , the average annual reference price recorded was 477.80 sen per kg on Nov 16. The highest price was 751.50 sen per kg on Nov 2, 2020 while the lowest price recorded was 405.50 sen per kg on April 2, 2020.
The decline in global NR demand was due to the Movement Control Order enforced to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as China’s economic woes in the first quarter of 2020 during which its GDP contracted 6.8 per cent. The International Tripartite Rubber Council expects the shortage of raw supplies to last until early 2021 due to unpredictable weather conditions, reduced rubber tapping activities as a result of movement control to curb the spread of Covid-19, Pestalotiopsis leaf disease, and autumn season in the Southern Hemisphere,” he said.
Meanwhile, the government has also implemented certain measures in an effort to stabilise the agri-commodity price by increasing cooperation with the major rubber producing countries namely Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia under the ITRC framework. “The Covid-19 pandemic that hit the world at the end of 2019 also affected the international pepper market,” he said.
“This is followed by other countries such as China 1,101.50 tonnes , Taiwan 610.24 tonnes , Singapore 450.22 tonnes and Vietnam 357.76 tonnes ,” he said.