Rubber plantations are being dismantled due to sharply falling prices.

In many provinces and cities across the country, people are cutting down rubber plantations to switch to other short-term agricultural crops due to the sharp drop in rubber prices.

Not only are young rubber plantations, 2-3 years old, being cut down, but rubber plantations that are already producing latex are also being ruthlessly felled by farmers, while others are not being harvested by the owners because the latex revenue is not enough to cover labor costs.

Rubber trees are being cut down because revenue is insufficient to cover expenses.

One evening in mid-June, amidst the rubber forest of Vinh Thach commune (Vinh Linh district, Quang Tri province), hot, pungent smoke billowed into the air. Mr. Ho Van Thanh explained that he was burning the dry leaves from his more than 1.5-hectare rubber plantation, which had just been cut down to the base, in order to prepare for the next day's excavation of the stumps for planting short-term crops.

Residents of Vinh Hien commune, Vinh Linh district, Quang Tri province are cutting down rubber trees to plant short-term crops.

According to Mr. Thanh, this rubber plantation was planted in 1996 and is currently being harvested. However, since the beginning of 2014, the amount of latex has gradually decreased and the price has dropped sharply, to only 15,000 VND/kg of fresh latex compared to 30,000-40,000 VND/kg in the same period last year.

“I have 1.5 hectares of rubber trees, but I only get a few tens of thousands of dong a day tapping them. If I hire workers, I'll lose nearly 200,000 dong per day. The losses are so heavy that I'm cutting down the rubber trees and replanting short-term crops,” said Mr. Thanh. Like Mr. Thanh, after the heavy damage from Typhoon No. 10 in 2013, many small-scale rubber farmers in Quang Tri and Quang Binh provinces reported a significant drop in rubber latex production this year, with the latex being very thin and, most importantly, the price is only one-third of what it was at the same time last year. Many have decided to cut down their rubber trees to plant short-term crops, incurring additional costs for digging up stumps (12 million dong/ha), plowing (over 2 million dong/ha), and various seeds and fertilizers... while the money from selling the timber isn't enough to cover the cost of clearing the land.

In eastern provinces like Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, and Tay Ninh, many people are also rushing to cut down rubber trees, even though they don't know what to plant as a replacement. Along the road in Phu Chanh commune (Tan Uyen, Binh Duong), piles of fresh rubber wood, still smelling of burning wood, are stacked up waiting to be sold. Further inside, the sound of chainsaws roars, not from sawmills or carpentry workshops, but from rubber plantations being cut down by the locals. Mr. Vo Hung Lam (Phu Chanh, Tan Uyen), who just cut down 2 hectares of rubber trees that were ready for harvest, said that the price of latex is too low, so many farmers don't bother harvesting and have to cut them down instead.

“It’s uncertain when rubber prices will rise again, while fertilizer and maintenance costs are increasing, forcing farmers to clear their plantations and switch to other crops. Many are even cutting down young rubber trees,” said Mr. Lam. According to Mr. Nguyen Van Thua (Tan Uyen), the owner of a 3-hectare rubber plantation, with a selling price of 8,000 VND/kg, the revenue from selling rubber latex is just enough to cover harvesting costs and family expenses; the money for maintaining the rubber plantation has to be borrowed from outside sources. “The price of rubber latex is too low, arguably the lowest in the past ten years, so farmers cutting down their rubber plantations is unavoidable,” Mr. Thua said.

Rubber plantation abandoned, put up for sale.

Although it's currently rubber tapping season, Ms. Nguyen Thi Nga (Xuan Thanh, Thong Nhat, Dong Nai) has decided not to tap her rubber trees, choosing instead to nurture them due to the extremely low price of latex. “Last year, the price of fresh latex was over 12,000 VND/liter, and my 2 hectares of rubber trees yielded 50 million VND, but expenses consumed almost half of that. This year, the price is only 7,000-8,000 VND/kg, while the tapping fee is 350 VND/tree, not to mention the cost of pouring the latex, investing in cups and bowls… The money from selling the latex isn't even enough to cover the labor costs, so why bother tapping?” – Ms. Nga lamented.

According to Ms. Nga, in 2007, seeing the relatively high price of rubber latex, her family decided to cut down 2 hectares of durian and mangosteen trees that were generating over 70 million VND per year and plant rubber trees hoping to change their lives. But instead of changing their lives, now they don't even bother tapping the trees during the harvest season. "If we had kept them, our durian and mangosteen orchards would have brought in nearly 500 million VND over the past five years, and we wouldn't have had to spend over 20 million VND per year on fertilizer and rubber tree care. In total, since switching to rubber trees, my family has lost over 600 million VND," Ms. Nga lamented.

Mr. Bui Van Rai (Tan An commune, Hon Quan district, Binh Phuoc province) is even more distressed that his investment has shrunk after only one year. At the end of 2010, when rubber prices were high, Mr. Rai scrambled to raise 1 billion VND to buy 1 hectare of young rubber trees. However, after two tapping seasons, he only had enough money to cover labor and fertilizer costs. Now, he's trying to sell it for 500 million VND, but no one is interested. "Many people are selling their rubber plantations at half the price they were 2-3 years ago, but no one dares to buy them. Last year, my children were working as rubber tappers, but now that no one is hiring, they've gone to work in factories and enterprises to make ends meet," Mr. Rai said.

Near the Dau Giay rubber plantation (Dong Nai province), in previous years, more than 60% of the laborers in Tran Hung Dao hamlet (Xuan Thanh commune) chose to work as rubber tappers. But according to Mr. Vo The Hoang, a former rubber tapper, like him, hundreds of rubber tappers have submitted resignation letters. “Quitting tapping means unemployment, but now the monthly income is less than 1.5 million VND, sometimes only 400,000-500,000 VND/month, how can we live like that? While a few years ago, we earned at least 3 million VND per month,” Mr. Hoang lamented.

Mr. Tran Minh Tuan, a rubber tapper who recently quit his job, said that because workers' wages are calculated based on the value of the latex, but the price has plummeted from 900 VND/degree three years ago to only 280 VND/degree now, wages have shrunk accordingly. “In previous years, getting a job at the plantation required significant expense and months of waiting, but now anyone who applies is accepted immediately because in less than two months, hundreds of plantation workers have submitted resignation letters. Those who remain are mostly long-term workers trying to hold on to accumulate enough seniority to receive their pension later,” Mr. Tuan said.

The young rubber trees were also destroyed.

Along provincial road DT 785, running from Tan Chau town, Tan Chau district, Tay Ninh province to the Ka Tum border gate (border with Cambodia), passersby are struck by piles of young rubber trees recently cut down by farmers, scattered along the roadside. Seeing our surprised expressions, Mr. Pham Van Bien (Tan Hoi commune, Tan Chau district) explained that due to the sharp drop in rubber prices, revenue is insufficient to cover harvesting costs, leading many locals to cut down rubber trees and switch to growing cassava.

Pointing to a pile of rubber trees as thick as an arm that had been cut down just 15 days earlier, Mr. Bien said his family had also recently cleared nearly 2 hectares of three-year-old rubber trees to plant cassava. "If we kept the rubber trees, we would have to spend money on fertilizer every year, while the price of rubber latex is currently low, so we had to cut them down to plant short-term crops," Mr. Bien said.

Similarly, Mr. Nguyen Van Chau (Tan Ha commune, Tan Chau district) - who recently cleared nearly 7 hectares of two-year-old rubber trees - said he had invested over 450 million VND but had to cut them down to plant cassava due to concerns that rubber prices would continue to remain low, while the cost of care and fertilization was quite expensive. “We have to wait a few more years to harvest rubber latex, and each year we have to spend tens of millions of VND more on fertilizer and labor, but we don't know what the price of latex will be. Meanwhile, cassava currently yields higher profits and is a shorter-term crop,” Mr. Chau said.

Mr. Nguyen Van Thuong, head of the Agriculture and Rural Development Department of Tan Chau district, said that there are currently more than 160 hectares of young rubber trees that have been cut down by people in the area. In almost every commune, farmers have cut down several dozen hectares of rubber trees to switch to planting cassava.

According to Mr. Nguyen Dac Hung, head of the Agriculture and Rural Development Department of Tan Bien district, 50 hectares of young rubber trees have been cut down in the area, not to mention 360 hectares of rubber trees currently being harvested that farmers have also cut down to switch to planting other crops. In addition, many farmers are pruning and cutting branches of young rubber trees, covering an area of ​​over 124 hectares, to take advantage of the current low rubber prices to plant cassava.

"We urged farmers not to cut down the rubber trees because it would be wasteful, but many said that if they kept the rubber plantations, who would compensate them if the price of latex dropped and they suffered losses? Therefore, we only analyzed the situation and offered recommendations; whether to keep or cut down the rubber trees is the farmers' right," Mr. Hung said.