Floods in Southern Thailand damage over 12 million acres of rubber plantations

Bangkok, Thailand – Massive floods have hit five provinces in the Southern Thailand last week and have caused estimated damages worth 20 billion baht ($589 million USD), the Rubber Authority of Thailand (RAT) said. It is estimated that more than 300,000 tons of tires will be lost from the market system.

Mr. Suktat Sangwiriyakul Acting Governor of the Rubber Authority of Thailand revealed that due to the continuous rainfall and flooding in many southern provinces, which may last until the end of December, there are rubber plantations of farmers in many provinces affected because they cannot harvest rubber products during this period, including Songkhla, Satun, Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, Nakhon Si Thammarat. The amount of rubber yield that is lost from harvesting is about 3 kg/rai per day in the affected period of 1 and a half months (in the case of using the daily slit system, it is about 20 days), which will cause the rubber yield to be lost from the market system, totaling more than 319,675,680 kilograms or about 319,675 tons.

“It must be admitted that the flood situation in many provinces in the south, including rubber plantations, has affected the harvest of rubber products, which will lead to a shortage of rubber production or insufficient production for the demand for the rubber market system in the future.” Acting Governor of the EAT said.

Mr. Tangwiriyakul said heavy flooding in Songkhla, Satun, Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat damaged more than 5 million rai of rubber plantations.

He said RAT believes that farmers will not be able tap their rubber trees for another month and a half, which would cause some 20 billion baht in lost revenue. The estimate is based on the current price of latex at 65 baht per kilogram.

He also added that RAT will give 3,000 baht in compensation to farmers who have registered their farms with RAT. The authority’s provincial offices have also been granted an emergency fund of 100,000 baht each to distribute bags of necessities to flood victims.