Natural rubber is a plant of economic importance of Thailand and South East Asian region.  The region is the largest producer and exporter of natural rubber in Asia and the world with the market share of 80%. Among the region, Thailand is the top of global market share (33.1%), followed by Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. Thailand is the world’s largest producer and exporter of natural rubber, generating export revenue from rubber and rubber products of over 678,000 baht per year, involving not less than 6 million people. How much Thailand will benefit from the establishment of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) depends on adaptability to changes and challenges.

Natural rubber is one of the 12 priority sectorss in AEC. Thai NR exports to ASEAN market account for 14% of its total exports. ASEAN has served as the world leader of rubber development. It corporates with other regions i.e. ASEAN+3 (China, South Korea and Japan) and ASEAN+6 (China, South Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and India). Apart from combining into a single production base and single market, ASEAN seeks to reduce cost of production and increase production and its value through the use of modern technology. Thailand needs to strengthen rubber products and quality through information management and skill improvement and solve the weak points i.e. cost of production (particularly labour and transport), quality control, rubber industry chain through integration and connectivity.

Currently, Thai rubber export is mainly in the form of primary processing product – ribbed smoke sheet, concentrated latex, technically specified rubber, compound rubber, etc. In response to global rubber demand trend, Thailand increases the production of TSR due to comparatively lower price, convenience in transport and easier quality control as compared to RSS. In the future, without the change of production process in line with market demand, Thailand will lose its competivity. The government shall support machinery and commercialized technology so as to fully process rubber for commercial use. Entrepreneurs need to change attitude before expanding investment and plantation in the neighbouring countries with lower cost of production i.e. Laos and Vietnam and export to China due to the convenience in transport and logistics.

Additionally, the government shall support and develop entrepreneurship and especially personnel for better labour skills and craftsmanship for adaptability to new technology amid intense competition. Not only expansion of plantation and production, entrepreneurs also need to develop marketing strategy and value addition instead of export of raw material with the use of research and technology to innovate existing products for better quality.

The Thai Rubber Association sees the significance of preparation and long term planning. With the strong corporation of relevant sectors, Thailand will remain the largest exporter of rubber and product in the world market.