Stabilizing smallholder rubber plantation area in Nghe An when latex price 'freezes'

(Baonghean.vn) - Due to the impact of the world and domestic economic situation, the price of rubber latex has decreased sharply in recent years. Therefore, although productivity has increased, smallholder rubber growers in Tan Ky district (Nghe An) have encountered many difficulties.

Many rubber areas in Tan Ky are entering harvest season. Photo by Phuong Thuy

Difficulty when prices fall

Once considered “white gold” when reaching the threshold of about 25,000 VND/kg of latex, the price of rubber has continued to drop sharply, causing anxiety for many smallholder rubber growers in Tan Ky district. Since mid-May, the rubber tapping season has entered a new crop, due to the erratic fluctuations in rubber prices, causing smallholder rubber growers to fall into a deadlock, when their income is not enough to cover their expenses.

To cope with the immediate difficulties, many rubber garden owners only tap sparingly, cut costs, limit investment, shift production to "short-term to long-term", or even ignore exploitation.

Mr. Nguyen Trong Huong, the manager of 13 hectares of rubber, of which 8 hectares are in the exploitation stage in Tan Minh hamlet, Tan Long commune, said: "For many families, a few hectares can be exploited by themselves, but for large areas like ours, there were times when we had to hire 4-5 workers to tap and drain the latex, but because rubber prices have dropped sharply, we now only hire 2-3 workers to cut costs."

In addition to the concern about the sharp drop in rubber prices, the current complicated weather situation has caused many garden owners to be "distressed". Ms. Tran Thi Luong (Tan Phuc hamlet, Tan Long commune) said: "With the current price of about 7,000 VND/kg of standard latex, garden owners cannot balance their expenses, while frequent rains and floods make it difficult to manage. Currently, my family is waiting for the latex purchase price to increase before tapping.

Households collect rubber latex but at a moderate level. Photo: PT

As for Mr. Le Duc Van's family (Tan Phuc hamlet - Tan Long), to cope with the situation of falling rubber prices and insufficient income during exploitation, Mr. Van is calculating to change direction to increase production on rubber gardens of designed age, intercropping corn, sugarcane, peanuts, combining with livestock to take advantage of the area, increase income to improve life.

It is known that Tan Long commune has the largest rubber area in Tan Ky district with a total area of ​​298.3 hectares, of which 157 hectares are in the exploitation stage. Faced with the sharp decline in rubber prices, smallholders are discouraged and do not want to invest in and care for rubber trees, switching to investing in other crops, causing many rubber gardens to lose quality and have low latex productivity.

Efforts to stabilize the area

Faced with this situation, Mr. Nguyen Ba Thuc - Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Tan Ky district said: Tan Ky currently has a total rubber area of ​​1,654 hectares, of which more than 700 hectares are small rubber plantations, invested by people on land assigned by the locality, the rest is land managed by companies. After planting, rubber trees need to be cared for for many years before they can be harvested, so people need to be patient, waiting for the opportunity for the market price to increase to harvest.

Not only Tan Ky, rubber growers in the whole province are struggling with the sharp decline in rubber latex prices in recent years. Therefore, the province's rubber area has stagnated, not reaching the plan assigned in the period of 2013 - 2015. Up to now, the whole province has 11,365 hectares of rubber/plan of more than 22,000 hectares, of which the smallholder rubber area is 713 hectares, mainly concentrated in Tan Ky district.

Combining young rubber plantation with other economic models such as livestock farming, intercropping corn, sugarcane, peanuts... to take advantage of the area, using short-term to support long-term. Photo: PT

However, localities need to step up propaganda and mobilize people to exploit and take proper care of rubber trees to maintain a stable rubber area. Avoid the situation where when prices drop sharply, people are indifferent, but when prices increase, there is nothing to exploit, because to grow rubber trees for harvest requires a lot of investment within 6 years.

Nghe An currently has 11 companies and enterprises growing rubber, including 6 units processing raw rubber latex, with a total capacity of 5,450 tons of dry latex/year. The province's goal is that by 2020, the total rubber area in the province will be 17,000 hectares, with dry latex output reaching 16,500 tons/year. Thus, in the next 5 years, the province will plant 5,535 hectares of new large-scale rubber plantations, plan over 74 hectares of sugarcane land, 9 hectares of annual crop land and 5,552 hectares of production forest land.

Phuong Thuy -Xuan Hoang