Cambodia joins ANRPC

ERJ staff report (DS)

Kuala Lumpur -- The Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) has announced the accession of Royal Government of Cambodia to the Association as its tenth Member. The Instrument of Accession was signed by the government on September 9, 2009. Honourable Dr. Chan Sarun, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of the government nominated H. E. Ly Phalla, Director General of the General Directorate of Rubber to represent the country.

After NR prices rebounded in 2008, there is a renewed interest among Cambodian farmers in cultivating rubber. Cambodia extended the cultivation of rubber by 25,901 ha in 2008 and another 10,000 ha is targeted to be brought under the crop this year. The country now has 107,901 ha under the crop including 33,673 ha of tappable area which produced 63,700 tonnes of dry rubber during 2008 with an average annual yield of 1892 kg/ha. The government plans to expand the cultivation to 150,000 by 2015. The Government also plans to promote investments in rubber processing to complement the increasing number of rubber plantations.

Rubber was identified as one of 19 products with good export potential in the government's 2007 Diagnostic Trade Integration Strategy. From 10,825 tonnes (dry rubber) exported during 2008, Cambodia earned $24.9 million during the year.

With the accession of Cambodia, the membership strength of the ANRPC has reached 10, the other nine are governments of China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. The membership of the Association is open to the governments of countries producing NR. The process of the accession of Republic of Philippines is expected to be completed soon.

The Association is also organizing the ANRPC Annual Rubber Conference 2009 on November 4, in Ho Chi Minh City and this is open to all.