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By Ira Karen Apanay, Reporter
THE Philippine Rubber Industries Association
Inc. (PRIA) is asking the government to set up a modern processing
plant to help it compete with foreign rivals.
Basilisa Ho, chairman of the Local
Organizing Committee of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)
Rubber Conference 2008, said most of the existing local processing
plants are old.
At present, the industry ships 45 percent
of its output abroad. The Philippines produces 400,000 metric tons
of rubber every year, according to the Bureau of Agricultural
Statistics.
Kwan Ming Dee, PRIA president, said the
group expects the price of natural rubber to increase in the next 20
years. At present, rubber trades at $3,000 per metric ton.
Because of the high demand for the commodity in
the world market, the Department of Agriculture is eyeing a 10
percent expansion of the country’s natural rubber production to
450,000 tons this year as part of a 15-year plan to make the
Philippines a major player worldwide.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said this
growth target will help meet the growing demand of the domestic tire
and footwear industries and raise exports to $56 million this year
from $42 million last year.
To support the expansion program and other
intervention measures, the government has to invest at least P300
million over the next two years—at least P70 million this year,
and another P226 million in 2009.
The government said this expansion is taking
place in the South Cotabato-Cotabato-Sultan
Kudarat-Saranggani-General Santos City region or Soccsksargen with
10,000 hectares, Zamboanga Peninsula with 8,200 hectares, Caraga
with 1,000 hectares, Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao with 1,000
hectares, Northern Mindanao with 500 hectares, Davao Region with 500
hectares, and Palawan with 400 hectares.
The agriculture department expects the expansion
to generate nearly a million jobs.
The agency said its initiatives to increase
rubber production is part of its 15-year Rubber Development Program
launched in 2006 to enhance the productivity and competitiveness of
the sector.
As part of the program, the agriculture
department aims to expand the current area planted to rubber to one
million hectares and increase production and exports to $960 million
by 2020, creating at least one million jobs.
Yap said the country possesses three
fundamentals for developing “a strong, competitive and
sustainable” local rubber sector, which are favorable
agro-climatic resources, the availability of suitable areas for
rubber farming even outside of Mindanao, and market and industry
dynamics that allow growth for smallholder operations
Agriculture Undersecretary Jesus Paras said the
government’s Ginintuang Masaganang Ani High Value Commercial Crops
Program aims to open 21,600 hectares of additional rubber areas this
year, on top of the 20,500 hectares developed last year.
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