Mindanao eyed as manufacturing hub

By Cheneen R. Capon
STAKEHOLDERS of the rubber industry are positioning Mindanao as the manufacturing hub in the country.
Department of Trade and Industry Undersecretary Zenaida Maglaya said Mindanao has a huge potential for rubber production.
Maglaya said Mindanao would benefit from the rubber industry in job geberation from operating nurseries to processing and marketing.
Datuk Dr. Abdul Aziz Bin S.A. Kadir, secretary general of the Kuala Lumpur-based International Rubber Research and Development Board, said Mindanao is blessed with vast fertile land.
Kadir said in a press conference for the 2nd Philippine Rubber Investment and Market Encounter 2015 at the SMX Davao Convention Center that the future for the country’s rubber industry is “bright” despite the efforts to improve the sector just started in 2012 at the hype of the rubber industry in the world market.
Mindanao’s rubber production is accounted for 99 percent of the country natural rubber production totaling to 444,807.74 metric tons (MT) in 2013.
Data from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) revealed that Mindanao has more than 183,000 hectares scattered all over Caraga, Northern Mindanao, Davao Region, Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, Soccksargen, and Zamboanga Peninsula.
Mindanao is producing 99 percent of the more than 400,000 MT rubber yield in the Philippines.
The Philippines exported 111,000 MT in 2012, only about one percent of the world supply just like Sri Lanka and Cambodia.
Although the Philippines is one of the rubber producing and exporting countries in Asia, the country’s produce is not enough to supply even the local demand.
“We are relying on importing rubber products from Thailand and Indonesia rather than processing our own,” DTI national Rubber Industry Cluster champion Sitti Amina M. Jain said in the same press conference.
For instance, Japanese tire manufacturer Yokohama is sourcing its material from local rubber producers.
Only six percent of Yokohama’s demand is locally sourced in 2006, although this increased to 32 percent in 2012.
“There’s so much demand even in the local demand,” Jain said.
However, the challenge to produce quality natural rubber and lack of planting material posed threat to the industry.
Philippine Rubber Industry Association preisent Rhodora Medalla said the development of the industry would depend on the knowledge of farmers on value adding their products as well as the participation of different goverbement agencies and the private sector.