Rubber: Cooperatives Boost Benefits To Growers

[george]

Cooperatives Boost Benefits to Growers: Adding to value of rubber in Chanthaburi

CHANTABURI: -- Rubber planters in Thailand’s eastern province of Chanthaburi have been bypassing the traditional cornering of the rubber trade market by jointly founding their own rubber processing factory to avoid price manipulation by middlemen.

Thanks to the government’s Bt13 million loan, interest free for a year, they set up a cooperative to directly buy rubber sheet from members and sell their products to the market in bulk.

The Rubber Holder Co-Operatives Federation of Chanthaburi Ltd, as it is called, has bought raw rubber sheets from planters since the middle of last year at Bt3 per kilogramme higher than the market price. From the province’s entire rubber plantation zone -- covering some 300,000 rai (about 120,000 acres), some 20 tonnes of raw rubber sheets from local planters are sold to the cooperatives daily.

“We can sell rubber at higher prices now. Formerly the price kept declining and we used to get only Bt60-70 per kilo,” said rubber planter Srimai Tongpem.

“We used to directly deliver raw rubber to buyers but we don’t have to do that anymore. The cooperatives collect our rubber and negotiate the price with middlemen who offer higher prices for bigger quantities,” said Boonsong Punsuwan, another planter.

After buying rubber sheets from planters, the cooperative has the raw material cleaned, air-dried and fumigated in its factory to enhance the quality. The rubber sheets are then pressed by a hydraulic system into square lumps, each weighing 111.11 kilos and stamped with a seal to guarantee the quality. Nine rubber ‘lumps’ weigh one tonne.

The first shipment was recently made to South Korea.

“Today, we don’t have any more raw rubber in stock. Exporters and foreign buyers visit us to see our product and we directly negotiate the prices with them,” said cooperatives chairman Perk Lerdwangpong. “Recently, South Korean buyers came to see our rubber here and agreed to purchase 3,000 tonnes of rubber lumps per month.”

Such a collaboration among Chanthaburi rubber planters has added to the value of their rubber, helped guarantee the prices and increased the planters’ income -- including their shares of dividend.

According to Thailand’s Rubber Research Institute, rubber is one of the kingdom’s major exports and rubber plantations nationwide cover around 15 million rai (six million acres). Export of processed rubber in 2008 was reported at 2.6 million tonnes, of which 150,000 tonnes were shipped to South Korea.

Export of natural rubber alone was 1.5 million tonnes, valued at Bt70 billion, in the first seven months of this year, reported the Office of Agricultural Economics.

-- The Nation 2009-10-16

[scotbeve]

Well done folks!!! Hope they always meet the quota and get more orders. Let's also hope that other switched on folks get the ball rolling in other provinces and get rid of the d_mn middleman (fat barstewards)...

[timber]

Co-ops are quite common in the west and sales is a small part of

the services they provide. Other services include seminars, insurance,

better rates on products that are commonly needed, such as fertilizers and

tools. If you have a large group buying or selling there are a lot of

opportunities as long as the directors are chosen wisely.

[Maizefarmer]

Excellent - the "bain" of all farmers in Thailand - the "middle-man"

I wish we could get rid of the lot of them in the dairy business and sell directly to the processors - we'd get as much as an extra Baht 2, possibly even Baht 3 per kilo - may not sound a lot, but it quickly adds up.

They have a good grip on alot of farmgate sales in Thailand.