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Cambodia’s rubber exports surge by 43% in Q1
Rubber exports from Cambodia surged by 42.8 percent in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same period last year and brought the country $168 million.
The earnings from the export of natural rubber and rubber articles in the first quarter of 2022 were only $117 million.
According to the latest trade data of the General Department of Customs and Excise (GDCE), rubber exports in March 2023 earned the country $55 million, an increase by 13.1 percent, compared to the same month in 2022 when the earnings were $48.5 million.
In February, rubber exports registered a 67.4 percent growth to earn $59 million compared to $35 million for the same period last year. Cambodia’s rubber exports in January 2023 also recorded a 59.8 percent surge compared to January 2022 and earned the country $54 million.
Last year, Cambodia earned $541.66 from the export of natural rubber and rubber articles, recording a growth of 28.3 percent compared to the previous year, despite adverse conditions including a fall in the prices of natural rubber. The rubber exports in 2022 constituted 2.4 percent of the total exports, slightly better than the 2.2 percent share in 2021.
The Cambodian rubber market consists of China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, India and the European Union (EU).
Production of natural rubber (NR), however, went down in the major producing countries due to the spread of leaf disease, erratic weather conditions, increasing climate temperatures, as well as low fertiliser input caused by rising costs.
According to the International Rubber Consortium (IRCo), a drought situation and early departure of tappers in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia are also contributing to the grim outlook.
“Furthermore, NR production in Thailand is expected to be lower during the first few months of the year, when tapping activities will be low, till June 2023,” it said in a report recently.
“The same is likely to be applied to Indonesia and Malaysia, affecting the overall NR output in the region by around 10 percent in the first half of 2023,” it added.
Meanwhile, the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) said the supply of NR was expected to remain tight in the months to come, due in part to a ‘circular leaf disease’ which has plagued plantations in northern Indonesia and southern Malaysia.
ANRPC said the disease has been aggravated by rains during the peak production period. The leaf disease can lead to an estimated 30 percent production loss.
In 2023, the outlook of global natural rubber (NR) market is anticipated to reach 14.693 million tons for production while consumption is projected at 14.738 million tons.
While the NR market is weighed on the market fundamentals of NR market itself and other external factors such as inflationary pressures, geopolitical tensions, global crude oil market and others could play an influential role as well.
In fact, rubber production has been declining over the last few decades even before the arrival of the leaf disease. Some smallholders have left rubber farming altogether and some others reduced rubber plantation area and production in several rubber producing countries.
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501274657/cambodias-rubber-exports-surge-by-43-in-q1/