Rubber Trees

[thoongfoned]

sold last Friday 22 baht wet cup......

[thaiguzzi]

Sold today at auction, 22.35 baht per kg. Worst price since we've been tapping. Heartbreaking for all concerned, us and the tappers, as we've got great output, and this is the time of year where we are all meant to be putting money in the bank for the down season.

[cobbler]

Yang is selling cheap down here. Time fof buying but nobody want to but. People talking aboug alternatives. So happy we mixed our farming up a few years ago.

[imokg2g]

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?/topic/779270-Thai-agriculture-ministry-to-launch-overall-rubber-reform#entry8719616

More empty promises of yet another government handout for rubber farmers. Let's see if this initiative comes to fruition. Holding breath in 3 - 2 - 1...

[thoongfoned]

from what I have been reading the powers that bee have been trying to stimulate the price of rubber since march, cutting back on exports ect..... with other countries trying to help also. at the end of the day any government or country ect cannot - should not try to "set" the price of this or that ect. it (product) is at the end of the day driven by demand - world markets. you only have to look at other commodities- oil ect... what do the oil producers do, cut back production...........

again have read and heard about the rubber subsidy but to date have not heard of people receiving yet. last year when the guys came out to check the rubber land for that subsidy i heard them say that this kind of thing will be happening again . ie this year.

do any of you think that the price of rubber could fall to such a level that the local buyers - auction - drive by ect...would stop buying, in turn making production stop or at least stalling to said demand picked up? i know that they still earn x amount per kg what ever the price is, just my thoughts......

the wifes tappers seem happy to be cutting and maintaining the land, i for one would not work for the amount that they are currently earning. i know that some of you guys have older - good trees........... farming or any business is never easy.

just my two cents worth.

[cobbler]

Sorry I actually meant to say yang farms selling cheap but nobody buying., not yang selling cheap.

Itll be the tappers who stop 1st b4 anything else. As what is happening down here on mountain farms . The myanmar, mon workers hav just paked up and gone home. After paying visa , including corruption money. Then the big 1 is every time theygo down the road on there motorbike the bloody cops r sitting under the shade of a tree and hit them for 200 bart. Around any party time eg xmas new year, chinese new year, weddings , funerals , mia noi, feeling horney . This can go up to 500 bart. If they get caught going home from selling yang ive heard of 2000 bart. So theyve decided its just not worth it at these shitty prices to keep tapping. Cops have thd best businesd, only investment capital is 1 plastic chair and a cool pair of sunnies. I know of many who can buy yang from this. Not just a few rai , but 40 ,50 to 100 rai .

Cheers cobbler

[thoongfoned]

cobbler you said before about price of the land for sale, already dropping......... I would imagine that when or if people have to sell - land at the right price (for buyer)there will be a queue for there are always many a buyer at a good price. im always amazed at how much cash money "floats" around rural areas. plenty of people with deep pockets, and I don't mean us white face people.

[scotbeve]

cobbler you said before about price of the land for sale, already dropping......... I would imagine that when or if people have to sell - land at the right price (for buyer)there will be a queue for there are always many a buyer at a good price. im always amazed at how much cash money "floats" around rural areas. plenty of people with deep pockets, and I don't mean us white face people.

Land, especially rural land is a very long-termed venture. Buy EXTREMELY low and sell in 15 - 25 years...

[Dakling]

Land, especially rural land is a very long-termed venture. Buy EXTREMELY low and sell in 15 - 25 years...

I agree 100% though the other problem with buying rural land is you need to keep it working or it will go back to trees very quickly. We have some land for sale but in the meantime I let the outlaws farm it for free just to keep the trees off it.

[cobbler]

I think at 150k to 180kbart per rai for tobor ha paper in this area of bangsaphan , was over priced. So now that yang price has collapsed its come back to a more realistic figure. The farmers and rich city folk who r severely cashed up, r that way because they r so smart, mostly. It seems not many people r interested in buying even cheap yang much right now. This makes me wonder if the yang days in thai r over due to cheaper country have so much now. Time will tell. I can stongly recomend mixing up your farming if its possible to do so.

Cheers cobbler

[cobbler]

Land, especially rural land is a very long-termed venture. Buy EXTREMELY low and sell in 15 - 25 years...

I agree 100% though the other problem with buying rural land is you need to keep it working or it will go back to trees very quickly. We have some land for sale but in the meantime I let the outlaws farm it for free just to keep the trees off it.

mate good luck selling it, unless u speak thai. If u speak thai u need to hide out of sight someplace so u know if they r really trying to sell it or just happy to farm it for free

[Mosha]

Well after ringing around and 19.2, 19.5 we got the 3rd at 20 Baht.

[imokg2g]

Sold yesterday kee yang 21.40 baht per kilo.

Bueng Kan province.

Averaging 42.10kg per rai over 2 weeks.

Cheers,

J

[thoongfoned]

sold today 20.4baht, auction. the talk at the sale was of about the dropping price, talk of even lower price next time....... almost every plantation around the wifes village has already stopped tapping...........

wife was told this evening that the government subsidy is on its way, get the paper work in by the 15th.............

[Mosha]

Latest sale at the gate 18 Baht.

[scotbeve]

15 baht in Fang yesterday.

[scotbeve]

How did dakling get my profile pic???

[Mosha]

15 baht in Fang yesterday.

Time to visit the head banging tree.

[GregBow]

we got 16.5 today for Kee Yang

from the dealers, anyone know what their mark up is to the factory?

as we own everything we can survive but still hard on the tappers - we now give 50% to help keep them

Guess I have to keep my day job for a while longer

Good luck all

[Mosha]

Jim Collister used to buy it in and he said they didn't make a lot. Maybe 1 Baht when the price was a lot better than now.

[Dakling]

How did dakling get my profile pic???

Huh?

[thaiguzzi]

# Sold at auction this week, Udon Province, cup at 20.32 baht per kg. Goin' Doooooooooooownnnnn...

# 12 bidders at the auction, more than normal (5-9), so money is still being made.

# Talk at the auction of tappers downing tools, leaving plantations, owners and families having to tap themselves or shut the farm down. Some owners now doing the 50/50 thing to keep tappers on till the end of season.

# Leaf fall and browning seems earlier this year, production excellent due to very cool nights, just keep plodding on till end of January.

# Me, i'm probably off in March to look for a few months work, UNLESS we have WW III and the price spikes back to 40+.

Yours,

pissed off,

Mike.

[cobbler]

Its scarey stuff. Dont know if this is of any help to u all or not. Maybe a bit late now to start. We make extra money from long beens, its only 250 to 300 bart every second day but it isnt much work either. Deffinately a lot easier that taping yang . About 25 days from plant till harvest .we just plant 10 meters x 8 meters . Need a bit of water if no rain , just use sprinklers. Also prick hom . Bit fiddley picking them but they grow well in the shade of the yang,. Again , water is good when its dry. If I lived in issan area id deffinately look at frogs 3 month turn around from tadpole to selling. Easy money . Go to your local kings project . Ask them what grows quickly. Bush pakwan is a good grower in the yang as well . Needs a bit of water in the dry .

We started doing this about 3 years ago when the price 1st dropped below 100 per kilo. I come off the land in oz and we always had mixed farming . Never put all your eggs in 1 basket. You have land use it if you can. Chickens and ducks. Can sell the eggs from both . Anyway maybe this is a help to you, or maybe not, . I hope it helps.

Cheers Cobbler

[cobbler]

# Sold at auction this week, Udon Province, cup at 20.32 baht per kg. Goin' Doooooooooooownnnnn...

# 12 bidders at the auction, more than normal (5-9), so money is still being made.

# Talk at the auction of tappers downing tools, leaving plantations, owners and families having to tap themselves or shut the farm down. Some owners now doing the 50/50 thing to keep tappers on till the end of season.

# Leaf fall and browning seems earlier this year, production excellent due to very cool nights, just keep plodding on till end of January.

# Me, i'm probably off in March to look for a few months work, UNLESS we have WW III and the price spikes back to 40+.

Yours,

pissed off,

Mike.

Its scarey stuff. Dont know if this is of any help to u all or not. Maybe a bit late now to start. We make extra money from long beens, its only 250 to 300 bart every second day but it isnt much work either. Deffinately a lot easier that taping yang . About 25 days from plant till harvest .we just plant 10 meters x 8 meters . Need a bit of water if no rain , just use sprinklers. Also prick hom . Bit fiddley picking them but they grow well in the shade of the yang,. Again , water is good when its dry. If I lived in issan area id deffinately look at frogs 3 month turn around from tadpole to selling. Easy money . Go to your local kings project . Ask them what grows quickly. Bush pakwan is a good grower in the yang as well . Grows easily from seed . . Needs a bit of water in the dry .

We started doing this about 3 years ago when the price 1st dropped below 100 per kilo. I come off the land in oz and we always had mixed farming . Never put all your eggs in 1 basket. You have land use it if you can. Chickens and ducks. Can sell the eggs from both . Anyway maybe this is a help to you, or maybe not, . I hope it helps.

Cheers Cobbler

[slapout]

good post cobbler, I have explained what it means to diversify and if not what the likely outcome will be ....failure. The older generation Thai farmers were brought to live on the land eat off of it and sell surplus for cash. the introduction of various monopolies and their middlemen have really put the staps on the small farmer in the past 2 or 3 decades. I reckon its similar to where usa/europe/australia farming was 100 years ago, no/few coops, farms too small to raise a bunch of kids and provide a good education. no land for the children to farm if they wanted, and cost so prohibitive to purchase machinery required to increase farm size or start up a farm operation from scratch. the min. farm size in the us now is close to 1000 acres and that is considered a hobby farm. you can with the modern machinery get over 200 acres a day if you want to work around the clock maybe 300. Its an amazing world out there and its just too bad the good farm people of Thailand have little chance of seein much less being a part of improving their livelehood. https://www.google.co.th/?gws_rd=cr,ssl&ei=Ml2JVP-MKoGXuATzxYLYDw#q=watch+free+recent+american+movies+online%2C coops

[cobbler]

If you want advise on what to grow in your area , be very warey of gov pushed ideas. eg ying luck before being kicked out was starting to push palm oil for issaan. They were planning another corruption scam not careing if the farmers went broke . Not enough water there. Yes you can run a pump but it will eat your profits. Go to local kings project . I would trust them . ive seen thais feed a family on 2 rai. King style farming . So if you have 20 , 40 rai or more . You can make money . We also planted 1000 namwa bananas . The ones among the trees slowly died but we still have about 300 in the sun wich now have multiplied to about 900. Again its not big money, but its easy money. Just trim the dead leaves. Cut the flowers off after the fruit has formed. Mixed farming is , I think the way to go. I cant see yang coming back. Too much of it in cheaper countries .Cheers and good luck

[Mosha]

There was summat on the idiot box yesterday with new initiatives mentioned. My other half wasn't in and it was only the odd word in English. However what I picked up.

Talk of a "Rubber Town" - Where Research will be carried out to look into other uses for rubber/latex. So asl your ladies if they saw anything. All I keep getting is "Up next month"

[cobbler]

Sorry mosha , didnt see it . Must have been on in 1pm or around then . Thats my nanna nap time . I generally get up about 5AM then have a snooze at 1 PM . Hard life lol. My mia didnt see it either ,

cheers Cobbler

[Mosha]

20 Baht just sold

[Dakling]

There was summat on the idiot box yesterday with new initiatives mentioned. My other half wasn't in and it was only the odd word in English. However what I picked up.

Talk of a "Rubber Town" - Where Research will be carried out to look into other uses for rubber/latex. So asl your ladies if they saw anything. All I keep getting is "Up next month"

I wonder where "Rubber Town" will be located, possibly on soi 6 in Pattaya. Maybe some central location between Soi Cowbow, Nana and Pat Pong.

On a more serious note I am sure there will be more uses found if the price stays low for an extended period. Something like mixing with some sort of paint to make a concrete cover/sealant for parking areas and driveways would be a good start (think that is already available back home but not sure if natural rubber is used).