One of the important roles of the Thai Rubber Association (TRA) is participating in academic conferences both in Thailand and international countries. This is to bring the technical knowledge together with the fresh information and news based on rubber to the Thai Rubber Association’s members. In 2019, Ms.Piyaporn Saelim, TRA Manager, was the delegate of the Thai Rubber Association to attend the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) Annual Rubber Conference Based on Adaptive and Inclusive Path to Sustainable Value Chain, and ANRPC Public-Private Meeting Based on Sustainable Rubber Industry on 7-8 October 2019 at Tentrem Hotel, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

The conference was honored by Dr. Enggartiasto Lukita, Minister of Commerce of Indonesia, to give the opening speech. He mentioned about Indonesia’s rubber industry. Overview of Indonesia Rubber Industry, has now been adopted by approximately 2.5 million farmers, 3.6 million hectare of rubber plantations, production 3.6 million tons and exported 2.95 million tons account for US$ 4.16 million. And domestic consumption 633,785 tons, by more 40% goes into vehicle tires, and rest used for gloves, elastic products and etc. Furthermore, Indonesia plans to boost domestic rubber consumption and using of rubber with many products; for example, rubber-road and rubber bearing pad. Dr. Enggartiasto Lukita also mentioned the Pestalotiopsis sp. diseases (leaves fall) that recently found in rubber plantation more than 380,000 hectares, resulting in the output decreased more than 15% or 540,000 tons. In addition, he mentioned sustainable rubber including 3 sectors which are economy, environment, and society. The important key is to develop an efficient supply chain and the appropriate prices. After the opening ceremony, there were the presentations from the experts with the different topics as follows; 1) The Roles of Related Sectors to Build Sustainable Natural Rubber, presented by Mr. Stefano Savi, the director of Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber. 2) Sustainable Natural Rubber; the Case Study from Oil Palm Industry, presented by Dato Dr. Ahmad Bin Ibrahim from UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur. 3) The Challenges of Adapting to Sustainability Standards, presented by Dr. Onanong Luanrak. 4) Economics of Sustainable Chain through Natural Rubber Producing Countries Aspects, presented by Mr. Jom Jacob from the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries. 5) The Approaches to Sustainable Income for Smallholdings, presented by Michal Brink from CMO Group. and 6) The Discussion on the Natural Rubber Producing Countries' Policy to Manage the Challenges to Build the Sustainability. For the ANRPC Public-Private Meeting, the important issue is that there should be the international stage from natural rubber producing countries in order to discuss the sustainable natural rubber. It is also important to build awareness of the smallholdings and to build sustainability standards that would be applied by smallholdings. In addition, should focus on the quality of the output as well as appropriate prices because if the rubber prices are depressed, the smallholdings may leave crop to seek wage employment. Therefore, to create a sustainable natural rubber, rubber users should be aware of the appropriate rubber prices for smallholdings' living.