Cuplump prices slightly up GOV’T UPBEAT ON RUBBER INDUSTRY

By Edwin G. Espejo

Gensan Times March 17, 2019

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said the country’s rubber industry could recover from prolonged slump in cup lump prices if tennis ball manufacturer HEAD pushes through with its plan to transfer worldwide operations in Misamis Oriental.

Piñol expressed his optimism after lawyer Franklin Quijano announced the recent signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the PHIVIDEC Industrial Authority Zone and representatives of HEAD, manufacturer of the popular tennis ball brand.

“This is a major development for the Philippine Rubber Industry. That means a lot of natural rubber latex needed for the balls.” Piñol said.

Prices of rubber cup lumps are on 10-year low at P18 per kilo prompting many farmers to stop tapping their rubber trees.

(Latest buying price of cuplumps has increased to P27 from P25 per kilo.)

The agriculture secretary sees a rebound in rubber cup lump prices once HEAD begins manufacturing tennis balls sometime next year.

According to Quijano, who is PHIVEDEC administrator and also its chief executive officer, HEAD is closing down its tennis ball manufacturing plant in China and is relocating in the Philippines.

“HEAD manufactures around 10 million tennis balls every year,” he disclosed.

He added that one of the world’s leading tennis equipment and apparel manufacturers has commenced technical and engineering studies and has reserved a five-hectare area inside Mindanao’s foremost industrial zone.

“Our rubber can be brought directly to the company and be used (in its products),” he added.

Mindanao is the country’s leading producer of rubber raw materials with Region 12 accounting for 47 percent of the country’s total output. The Zamboanga Penninsula, along with Basilan, accounts for 41 percent while he rest are spread out in other parts of the island.

Piñol hails from Cotabato Province in Region 12 where rubber is one of its leading agricultural products.

Both regions in Mindanao are, incidentally, also hotbed of insurgencies and among the poorest regions in the Philippines.

A spike in the prices of rubber cup lumps could ease poverty in the region.

World rubber prices have declined resulting into a slump in local cup lump prices.

One farmer said he hopes prices will rebound to P80-100 per kilo.

“The Philippine Rubber Industry, which has been reeling in the face of low prices of rubber cup lumps in the world market, may now finally see light at the end of the tunnel,” Piñol said.

Rubber farmers have been complaining of depressed cup lump prices after more than a decade of rehabilitating the once dying agricultural product.

In the 1980’s and 1990’s many farmers abandoned their rubber farms due to decreasing yield and land reform coverage.

This led to the closure of several cup lump processors in Mindanao.

The Philippine rubber industry however made a rebound at the turn of the millennium buoyed by increased world rubber prices.

That however is now being threatened by volatile local prices.

Quijano said the manufacturing plant could revitalize the rubber industry in Mindanao.

PHIVEDEC is less than 400 kilometers from both Cotabato and Zamboanga provinces.

(Photo downloaded from public website.)