Rubber Tree Land

[donx]

Well my wife recently purchased 27 rai of rubber tree land in Phatthalung where 17 rai is currently able to produce latex. She did this as both an investment and as a means of giving family members a job. I was curious to hear if anyone else here has invested in growing rubber and what their experiences have been. I don't expect us to make much money from this, but my wife claims that the trees should be able to produce 40 kilos per day. This sounds too optimistic to me, so I'd like to hear your opinions.

[Khun Bob]

i looked at buying some rubber tree land in malaysia and the margin being quoted was very good - between 20-40% - and the prices i was being quoted for the land were grossly inflated too..

i know a few people are changing over to palm oil as this is easier and even better margin.

[Rags]

Hi Donx

Similar to yourself, my wife and I have 40 Rai of land with rubber trees, purchased to provide her family with a source of income and employment, and hopefully a small regular income for ourselves.

The approach that we adopted was that we took care of all initial costs (including the land itself), and the family take care of planting, maintenance, harvesting, etc. With all the profits being split 50:50 - once we actually get some

You will actually find a lot of useful info on the TV Isaan Forum. Just do a forum search on there for "Rubber Tree"

The following topic from the forum may be of particular interest to you:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...ndpost&p=308573

Best of luck!

Rags

[aletta]

donx,if you do a search there's many a thread on rubber cultivation.

[donx]

Rags,

Our plan is to split the profits 50:50 as well. Where in Thailand is your 40 rai?

Before posting this thread, I did search for "rubber" and "rubber plantation". I did read the thread that you listed, but since it was based upon growing rubber in the North, I wanted to post this thread here. Phatthalung is in the South, just north of Had Yai where rubber trees are all over the area.

My wife says that rubber should start to be collected in the next few days. The land we bought has not been tapped for a while as the owner is very old. The price for the land was 35,000 baht/rai. It is my understanding that this is on the low side. One reason for this is that my wife claims that the land can't be used to obtain a loan from the bank. I trust my wife and her family's decision to invest in this land, but I have to say I am skeptical about the land title. My gut tells me that this land can only be used for agriculture and that ownership is based upon sqatters rights. My wife insists otherwise and since she has made so many good decisions in Thailand, I'm sure it will all work out fine. She said she even has people lining up to harvest the rubber for us in case our family members don't work out.

I am interested in knowing what monthly/yearly yeilds we can expect to achieve. I suppose I will have to wait to see what happens.

[Rags]

Rags,

Our plan is to split the profits 50:50 as well.  Where in Thailand is your 40 rai?

Before posting this thread, I did search for "rubber" and "rubber plantation".  I did read the thread that you listed, but since it was based upon growing rubber in the North, I wanted to post this thread here.  Phatthalung is in the South, just north of Had Yai where rubber trees are all over the area.

My wife says that rubber should start to be collected in the next few days.  The land we bought has not been tapped for a while as the owner is very old.  The price for the land was 35,000 baht/rai.  It is my understanding that this is on the low side. One reason for this is that my wife claims that the land can't be used to obtain a loan from the bank. I trust my wife and her family's decision to invest in this land, but I have to say I am skeptical about the land title.  My gut tells me that this land can only be used for agriculture and that ownership is based upon sqatters rights. My wife insists otherwise and since she has made so many good decisions in Thailand, I'm sure it will all work out fine.  She said she even has people lining up to harvest the rubber for us in case our family members don't work out.

I am interested in knowing what monthly/yearly yeilds we can expect to achieve. I suppose I will have to wait to see what happens.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi Donx

Our rubber plantation is actually down in the heart of Chonburi (miles away from the sea - unfortunately). I am afraid that I can't provide any advice with regards confirmed yields/prices, as we only started planting a few years ago. The trees are however growing well (depite the local shortage of water) and should start producing in another 3 or so years.

It is for this reason that we have supplemented our plantation with Cashew Nut trees, which yield a harvest at a much earlier stage. I did some projections a while ago but cannot lay my hands on them at present. I will try and dig them out for you.

Anyway keep us posted on how you get on, as it seems that we will both soon be in the same boat!

Best of luck.

Rags

[donx]

Thanks for the response Rags. I don't know how similar Chonburi is to Phatthalung, but you should have success with it there.

My wife says the juice is flowing now. The cutters are saving up the juice and will sell what they collect at the end of the month. My wife has made arrangements with someone that will buy the juice twice a month so that her family won't be involved in processing it into rubber sheets.

While searching the web, I found references that indicated that the average yearly output of one rai of rubber trees was 255 kilograms in Trang province which is next to Phatthalung province. Using a more conservative estimate of 250, we should expect to yield 4,250 kilograms per year with our 17 rai. If the average price per kilogram is 50 baht (which is lower than what my wife claims the current rate to be), then we are looking at a total yearly return of 106,250 baht for our 50% share.

I also found out that the 10 rai that is not currently producing has trees that are 3 years old. They should start producing in a few years as well.

I'll post again once my wife actually sells some of the rubber that they are collecting.

[Dakhar]

So what is your return on investment?

[donx]

The initial investment for the 27 rai was 945,000 baht (35,000/rai). Add perhaps 20,000 for rubber cutting equipment, which included a used scooter for our brother-in-law to use since it is 17 kilometers from our village, and the initial investment is 965,000 baht.

If we get my estimated 106,250 per year, then our rate of return is about 11%. Not bad, but there are many variables to consider:

1) How much rubber will we actually get per rai? This will depend upon how much rain there is and how much whiskey is drunk (by the workers, not the trees).

2) How much will we get for rubber per kilogram in the future? In the past, rubber was down as low as 20 baht/kg. Then again, my estimates are below current prices of 55-60 baht/kg and with oil going up and more cars in China, some analysts expect rubber prices to continue upward.

3) How many rai will produce rubber? Right now, 17 rai is tappable. 2 years from now I expect another 10 rai to be producing rubber. Some of the currently producing rubber will eventually stop producing and will need to be cut and replanted. When and how much I don't know.

[jitagon]

I've been told pineapples good investment here in the South. Anyone had any experience?

[mr_lob]

I've been told pineapples good investment here in the South. Anyone had any experience?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i live in krabi, where rubber is a big crop....pineapples are onyl really seen here when the rubber saplings are growing...just as a way of getting something from the land while waiting for the saplings to grow. don't think there can be much money in pineapples when you get 2 for 10 baht here!

[UncleDonald]

This discussion of rural investment possibilities in the South is interesting and informed; the estimated 22 percent return on rubber agri investment sounds reasonable though it may not account for the initial waiting period. I wonder does anyone have other ideas for specialty crops that are particular to this region? Nuts, herbs, fish farming, etc? Perhaps something that is a little difficult to work requiring a little more technology or management or capital...thereby offering a higher return and no competition from China

My recent tour of some local family fish farms (catfish) near my wife's village in Nakorn Sri Thammarat make this look like a promising investment. Shrimp farming appears to be banned because people were importing salt water and salting up good paddy.

[Eric Davis]

Thanks for the response Rags.  I don't know how similar Chonburi is to Phatthalung, but you should have success with it there.

My wife says the juice is flowing now.  The cutters are saving up the juice and will sell what they collect at the end of the month.  My wife has made arrangements with someone that will buy the juice twice a month so that her family won't be involved in processing it into rubber sheets.

While searching the web, I found references that indicated that the average yearly output of one rai of rubber trees was 255 kilograms in Trang province which is next to Phatthalung province.  Using a more conservative estimate of 250, we should expect to yield 4,250 kilograms per year with our 17 rai. If the average price per kilogram is 50 baht (which is lower than what my wife claims the current rate to be), then we are looking at a total yearly return of 106,250 baht for our 50% share.

I also found out that the 10 rai that is not currently producing has trees that are 3 years old.  They should start producing in a few years as well.

I'll post again once my wife actually sells some of the rubber that they are collecting.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

My wife says the juice is flowing now.

Quote of the Day.

[rogerlth]

Hi Sir,

About rubber tree, i had some question.

My family have a lot of rubber land. Due to the difficultly to collect the rubber every early morning, we lost a lot of profit on it. I hear from someone that there have a easy way to collect the rubber. After this things (like bottle) is install on the tree, we just need to collect the rubber once for every three days. It wont spoil the rubber because of chemical inside the bottle..

Do u all have any idea on it? Your reply would be appreciated. Thanks.

my email: [email protected]

Roger

[donx]

Roger,

I know very little about rubber tree tapping. Neither my wife nor I have heard about using bottles to collect the rubber sap. It sounds like an interesting idea, so if you find out more information about it, please let me know.

As far as my situation goes, since my wife returned from Thailand a month ago, the rubber trees have not been producing much, if any, rubber. I can't get my wife to explain to me why there are problems. I think she is having problems getting her family/friends to spend the effort. For one thing, the land with the trees is very hilly, so tapping the trees is hard labor. Another problem is that the land is 17 kilometers from her village and nobody wants to spend the gas to the drive there and back twice a day.

If we never make any money from the rubber trees, my wife says that the land is valuable because it can be used to supply people with fill dirt. Since I have never seen the land myself, I don't know what to think. Our main reason for getting this land was so her family would have a means of making money. If they can't or aren't willing to tap the rubber trees, it's really more of a problem for them than it is for me. She said we won't have any problem selling the land for a profit since she already had two offers to buy the land soon after we bought it.

Sorry I can't help you out with your question.

[rogerlth]

Hi Donx,

thank you for reply.

I need to update the information i get.

That should be a gas from a bottle, pump into the rubber tree. This gas is use to let the rubber flowing out continuesly. With this purpose, we do not need wake up to rubber estate every early morning to pare the trunk of rubber tree. About rubber, let it become solid, it still usable. We just need to fill in the gas every few months.

We just need to collect the rubber every few days.

The important is... what kind of gas they are using? Donx, try to find it out at you there... Let me know.

Good luck to us...

[69_68iou1]

My GF family has a rubber plantation.

As always she is trying to get me to buy more land. I have been there for 2 days and am going back to look at it further. ( brother was going to become a monk and I did a swift visit as I had to get back.)

The way they collected the rubber was with 1/2 a coconut shell tied to the tree with wire and a peice of metal ( TAP) that got stuck it to the tree after a layer of the bark was stripped with a knife / scrapper type thing.

I did have a go but was so pissed that the knife was taken from me as I messing up the tree, but I could hardley walk at the time and got back to drinking.

I am about to go and have a look again in more detail after speaking with GF and her farther about it more.

let to look at other posts and the net but am willing to share notes based on what I find and looking at a working rubber plantation.

whats the gas thing about?

can some one pass the info on please.

[steveromagnino]

My family has around 10,000 rai of which I think currently 500 rai produces rubber... at this sort of size, the key thing is to get rubber tappers that know what they are doing... it isn't quite as easy as you might think.

We split the money 50 50 with the rubber tappers, and I am not actively involved but recall:

- the rubber tappers (with current prices) now have a nice family estate down the road with 2 brand new 2 storey houses and seem to looking up in the world :-) they produce it into sheets at which point they sell

- the tree will produce from about 6 years- 25 years (? that I could be wrong about) after which time the wood is now valuable for furniture

- the tree can produce around 6 months a year

- the tapping if done manually HAS to be done early in the morning...so while our tappers may be well wealthy at the moment, I am sure that they are all too tired to spend their money, which is the real reason why they are rich

- trees seem to survive, once adult, with not too much water; planting can be more difficult; we lost about 1 in 3 of 200 rai of newly planted saplings this year with the dry Isaan weather

Have never heard or seen the gas thing; might have to check it out. Mind you we got most of the land years and years ago; more recently added 200 rai at about 7,000b per rai in the middle of nowhere and useless for pretty much anything other than growing trees (either Euca or rubber).. Saduek.

This is not a good job for a family that are not rubber tappers... it is actually quite lonely and hard work; and if they are not stakeholders (e.g. getting 50%) then it is not worth it. Better to find someone who is, give them 50% and share the other 50% with the rice/sugar cane farmer who wants to sit on his ass drinking whisky which some are prone to do. Without getting into the politics of meea farang it really is a case of easy come easy go; in the case of the tappers we use they work hard and get well paid at the moment; things could be quite different it prices slide, but as of the last 2 years they seem happy.

[parrot]

Hi.

Can you guys help me with a web adress, for purchasing land in Phatthalung ?

I am not going to grow rubber tree´s or anything, but want to build a house with sea view/lake view.

I can´t find anything on the net ....

I would love a large piece of land .... maybe on a hill Is that possible ? Close to the lake and sea

Thanks, Morten Denmark

[donx]

Hi.

Can you guys help me with a web adress, for purchasing land in Phatthalung ?

I am not going to grow rubber tree´s or anything, but want to build a house with sea view/lake view.

I can´t find anything on the net ....

I would love a large piece of land .... maybe on a hill Is that possible ? Close to the lake and sea

Thanks, Morten Denmark

I'm surprized to see this old thread. I was in the Farming section and noticed it below a thread I was reading there. Anyway, to answer your question, I don't think you will find many web sites that list properties in Phatthalung. There is one that I do see some properties - mostly bank forclosures - so you can give it a try:

http://www.thailisting.com/

Choose Phathalung and you will see what is available. Personally, I think you will have better luck going to Phatthalung and looking around, asking banks or locals what is for sale.

[ianbardon]

Don, hi form what i have read 20 to 30 trees makes 40kg in 1 night, so your wife is well under this estimate, ask other farmers near you, as different areas have different yields, I am looking to buy in the north, where it will be less. best of luck.

[yabaaaa]

Rags,

Our plan is to split the profits 50:50 as well. Where in Thailand is your 40 rai?

Before posting this thread, I did search for "rubber" and "rubber plantation". I did read the thread that you listed, but since it was based upon growing rubber in the North, I wanted to post this thread here. Phatthalung is in the South, just north of Had Yai where rubber trees are all over the area.

My wife says that rubber should start to be collected in the next few days. The land we bought has not been tapped for a while as the owner is very old. The price for the land was 35,000 baht/rai. It is my understanding that this is on the low side. One reason for this is that my wife claims that the land can't be used to obtain a loan from the bank. I trust my wife and her family's decision to invest in this land, but I have to say I am skeptical about the land title. My gut tells me that this land can only be used for agriculture and that ownership is based upon sqatters rights. My wife insists otherwise and since she has made so many good decisions in Thailand, I'm sure it will all work out fine. She said she even has people lining up to harvest the rubber for us in case our family members don't work out.

I am interested in knowing what monthly/yearly yeilds we can expect to achieve. I suppose I will have to wait to see what happens.

Ding dong alarm bells ringing for me here so its not chanote or nor sor sam land?

[David006]

Thanks for the response Rags. I don't know how similar Chonburi is to Phatthalung, but you should have success with it there.

My wife says the juice is flowing now. The cutters are saving up the juice and will sell what they collect at the end of the month. My wife has made arrangements with someone that will buy the juice twice a month so that her family won't be involved in processing it into rubber sheets.

While searching the web, I found references that indicated that the average yearly output of one rai of rubber trees was 255 kilograms in Trang province which is next to Phatthalung province. Using a more conservative estimate of 250, we should expect to yield 4,250 kilograms per year with our 17 rai. If the average price per kilogram is 50 baht (which is lower than what my wife claims the current rate to be), then we are looking at a total yearly return of 106,250 baht for our 50% share.

I also found out that the 10 rai that is not currently producing has trees that are 3 years old. They should start producing in a few years as well.

I'll post again once my wife actually sells some of the rubber that they are collecting.

Hi Donx: Well seems the price per Rai was pretty good..we paid about that about 4 years ago.

We are on 80 odd Rai of rubber north of Trang.25 producing ( approx 500 trees) with the rest ( about 3000 trees) coming on line in a bout two years. We currently leave our latex in the cups and sell evrery few of days anywhere up to 200kg. Interested to know how you "keep" your "juice" as you put it..assume you add Ammonia? Local middle men sell the latex to rubber cos every day....if has started to coagulate the price is discounted..

Annual returns fluctuate by large amounts due to non cutting months ( rain, rest days, leave fall period, absent cutters..) I work on about 7month year ROI on the 25 Rai is about 12% pa at the moment..a better way of looking at it methinks..

http://www.irco.biz/ gives rough guide to pricing, but if you sell to middle men it will be discounted by rubber content (Spec Gravity of liquid latex generally about 25-40%!) and guesstimated water content if cup or sheets. generally ( 5-15%)

So that"s a bit of info for you to ponder..feel free to PM me..would be interested to know your progress re yields etc..

Wew are not cutting now as the leaves are still off the trees...about 3 weeks to go...before we start again....hel_l its HOT!!

[donx]

Rags,

Our plan is to split the profits 50:50 as well. Where in Thailand is your 40 rai?

Before posting this thread, I did search for "rubber" and "rubber plantation". I did read the thread that you listed, but since it was based upon growing rubber in the North, I wanted to post this thread here. Phatthalung is in the South, just north of Had Yai where rubber trees are all over the area.

My wife says that rubber should start to be collected in the next few days. The land we bought has not been tapped for a while as the owner is very old. The price for the land was 35,000 baht/rai. It is my understanding that this is on the low side. One reason for this is that my wife claims that the land can't be used to obtain a loan from the bank. I trust my wife and her family's decision to invest in this land, but I have to say I am skeptical about the land title. My gut tells me that this land can only be used for agriculture and that ownership is based upon sqatters rights. My wife insists otherwise and since she has made so many good decisions in Thailand, I'm sure it will all work out fine. She said she even has people lining up to harvest the rubber for us in case our family members don't work out.

I am interested in knowing what monthly/yearly yeilds we can expect to achieve. I suppose I will have to wait to see what happens.

Ding dong alarm bells ringing for me here so its not chanote or nor sor sam land?

I started this thread almost 5 years ago (July 2005). Since the original post, we sold the 17 rai with mature trees because they weren't producing any rubber anymore and because my wife found someone willing to pay 50,000 baht/rai in 2006. The other 10 rai has young trees that should be ready to cut very soon. The profit we already made just from the buying and selling of the 17 rai plot is 205,000 baht since we paid a 50,000 baht commision to one of our relatives for negotiating the sale (we live in the US). That means we effectively paid only 145,000 or 14,500 per/rai for the 10 rai plot. And if you compare what the baht was trading for in 2005 with what it is trading for today, you will see that we made a good investment.

I discovered that the type of title on this land is called Sor. Tor. Gor. and spelled in Thai as ศ. ฅ. ก. which we have successfully sold on so I'm not concerned about the other 10 rai which has this type of land title. The purpose of this land is for my wife's family to remain gainfully employed. And now that the trees are almost ready to be cut, I feel we made an excellent decision to invest in this land.

I agree that a farang, on his/her own, should never buy anything without a chanote or nor sor sam title. Also if we intended to build a house on this land then that would be a mistake. But for agricultural purposes, our desicion as worked out well for us.

[bellachg]

Rags,

Our plan is to split the profits 50:50 as well. Where in Thailand is your 40 rai?

Before posting this thread, I did search for "rubber" and "rubber plantation". I did read the thread that you listed, but since it was based upon growing rubber in the North, I wanted to post this thread here. Phatthalung is in the South, just north of Had Yai where rubber trees are all over the area.

My wife says that rubber should start to be collected in the next few days. The land we bought has not been tapped for a while as the owner is very old. The price for the land was 35,000 baht/rai. It is my understanding that this is on the low side. One reason for this is that my wife claims that the land can't be used to obtain a loan from the bank. I trust my wife and her family's decision to invest in this land, but I have to say I am skeptical about the land title. My gut tells me that this land can only be used for agriculture and that ownership is based upon sqatters rights. My wife insists otherwise and since she has made so many good decisions in Thailand, I'm sure it will all work out fine. She said she even has people lining up to harvest the rubber for us in case our family members don't work out.

I am interested in knowing what monthly/yearly yeilds we can expect to achieve. I suppose I will have to wait to see what happens.

If no bank will give a mortgage, then it is no proper land title, such as a chanot or a N.S. 3. Beware ! Before you shell out any money get a copy of the document, if any, which says the present "owner" is the owner, show it to your lawyer and get his advice.