Thailand, the world's top rubber producer, is expected to export 2.6 million tonnes of the commodity this year, a drop of 3 percent from 2008, a senior Thai official said on Wednesday. Rain has affected tapping in the main growing area in the south and production may only reach 2 million to 2.5 million tonnes, as much as 35 percent down on 2008, said Somchai Charnnarongkul, director at Thailand's Ministry of Agriculture.
Somchai was speaking on the sidelines of a rubber conference in Vietnam. Thailand produced 3.09 million tonnes of rubber last year and exported 2.68 million tonnes, data from the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries show. World natural rubber output this year is expected to fall below the 9.88 million tonnes produced in 2008, Somchai told a news briefing at the association's annual rubber conference.
He forecast production could rise to between 10 million and 10.2 million tonnes in 2010. Global natural rubber consumption is forecast to rise 1.6 percent next year from 2009 to 9.71 million tonnes, according to a report from the International Rubber Study Group.
Comments
Comments are closed.