Waiting to tap rubber’s rebound
The large-scale rubber plantations that arrived in force in Cambodia a decade ago as global rubber prices moved to historic peaks are facing sober prospects as trees they planted before the commodity’s prices headed south begin to reach maturity. While international rubber prices have been slowly rising on a slight pick-up in demand from China, the world’s top consumer, a plantation owner said on October 27 that the current $1,450 per tonne is not enough for large-scale producers to recoup their massive capital investment. He said that until rubber passes the $2,000 per tonne mark, it did not make economic sense to begin large-scale production. Jef Boedt, general manager of Socfin Cambodia, the local arm of a Belgian-Swiss agro company with rubber plantations spread across Africa and Indonesia, said the first batch of rubber trees that the company has planted on 7,500 hectares in Cambodia since 2009 reached maturity earlier this year. However, this first tapping season has been limited, both at Socfin’s plantations in Mondulkiri province, and at others like it across the country.
