Rubber prices were good at the commencement of this rubber trading season but the current trend is leading to decline, rubber plantation owners in Yay Township in Mon State say.

“We got 1,300 Kyats per pound at the opening season but the rubber output fell because of rain. Many people could not hire enough workers for their plantations. Then the price of rubber falls again now. It reached below 900 Kyats per pound,” a plantation owner said.

A rubber trader said that restrictions on foreign currency and import-export trading by the Military Council caused the fall of rubber price in the country and the rubber traders incurred losses in their trading.

A local trader in rubber commodity exchange said: “Domestic rubber companies set their buying price of rubber below 1,000 kyats per pound last season. Most rubber traders incurred losses when the rubber price was over 1,100 kyats and then they had to sell their houses and real estate to pay back their loans taken from rubber companies in advance.”

After the coup staged by the junta, input costs and labour costs in rubber plantations rose nearly two fold and even the labour in these plantations could not survive with falling rubber prices.

There are more than 500,000 acres of rubber plantation in Mon State and over 150,000 workers engaged in this business every year. Rubber is the main source of foreign exchange earning in Mon State.