RUBBER INDUSTRY NEEDS P1.25 B IN CREDIT FACILITY TO FULFILL PLANTING TARGET
By: Melody M. Aguiba - Manila Bulletin, Oct. 6, 2003

The rubber industry needs a credit facility of P1.25 billion yearly in order to implement a program of planting 15,000 hectares of rubber trees per year for next five years.

Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) and the University of Southern Mindanao (USM) said in a report on a rubber development plan that the programmed expansion will also need financing for the establishment of two commercial rubber testing laboratories to be located in Zamboanga and Bukidnon and the establishment of four new rubber processing plants.

On the production side the Quedan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corp. is being eyed to augment credit facility to farmers with its established scheme of lending short-term. The facility will be on top of an existing P355-million joint financing for rubber replanting of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP).

The plan is hope to raise the Philippines' rubber exports reaching to $18.187 million involving 44,722 metric tons(MT) in 2002 and reduce imports totaling to $937,216 consisting of 625 MT in 2002. The Philippines exported in 2002 natural rubber latex totaling to 161 MT Malaysia and 3.4 MT to Indonesia and natural rubber in plate or sheet to Malaysia, 614 MT; Germany, 240 MT; Italy, 100 MT; and Spain, 38 MT.

For natural rubber in crepe sheets it exported 22,445 MT to Malaysia; 2,933 MT, Singapore; 2,351 MT to China; 6,574 to Taiwan; 1,843 MT Germany; 1,425 MT Hong Kong; 443 MT, Italy; 103 MT, Japan, 323 MT Korea; 40 MT each Malta and Portugal; and 41 MT, United States.

A group of planners including BPI and USM earlier identified 500,000 hectares of suitable rubber areas in the Philippines on top of the existing 85,000 hectares. The targets also include the increase of rubber yield from 0.8 MT per hectares to 1.5 MT per hectare and the organization of four regional rubber federations and 10 provincial rubber associations.

New rubber processing plants will be established in Makilala, North Cotabato, Agusan del Sur, Bukidnon and Basilan.

The Philippines rubber plantations are located mostly in Region 9 totalling to 32,586 hectares including 189,576 hectares in Zamboanga Sibugay; 6,060 hectares in Zamboanga del Sur, 6542 hectares in Zamboanga del Norte and 408 hectares in Zamboanga City.

Other rubber growing provinces are North Cotabato, 23,196 hectares; Agusan del Sur 5,500 hectares; Bukidnon, 4,353 hectares; Davao del Sur, 1,160 hectares; Saranggani 454 hectares; and Sultan Kudrata, 214 hectares. Provinces at the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao(ARMM) that plant rubber are Basilam 7.31 hectares and Maguindnao 425 hectares.

Government intervention needed in the program are the establishment of rubber nurseries for which 10 high yielding rubber clones have already been recommended for propagation, training of small growers on rubber cropping system and the establishment of rubber price monitoring system.

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