Podcast Title: WHAT’S WHITE AND STICKY AND ALL AROUND YOU? A JOURNEY INTO THE WORLD OF RUBBER!

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SEGMENT 1 — Explaining how the I stumbled across the detail

As you may have guessed from the podcast title, that is what it is like to work as a farm labour on a rubber tree plantation. RUBBER — It’s something I knew nothing about until I came to be in southern Thailand. Rubber is all around us. There are literally millions of things made out of rubber. We’ve rubber gloves, rubber boots, rubber bands, rubber on our shoes, rubber mats, rubber tyres (that’s 50% of all rubber), rubber hoses, rubber gaskets..well you get the idea. There’s rubber in our homes, in our cars, where we work, and where we play. Yet until Thailand, I knew nothing about rubber, other than the vague notion that it probably came from trees, right? It’s something I should know more about!

A one hour flight from Bangkok, and then a further 45 minute drive brought me to the heart of Thailand’s rubber industry. From the air it was clear to see; huge swaths of land — with precisely planted rows of rubber trees.

Friends connected me to 65 year old Khun LEUNG, who owns a rubber plantation in Surat Thani province of Southern Thailand, and has worked with rubber all his life and was kind enough to allow me to tag along one morning and to tells us about his livelihood:

Here’s what Khun Leung had to say, which of course I’ve needed explained to me. The Southern Thai dialect is challenging to follow, even for some natve Thai speakers. I’ve interspersed some of my own research and observations along with what Khun Leung shared:

Early morning before sun comes up we must go to collect the sap (latex) from the fields, and then later, at about 8 a.m. will come back to prepare the trees for the next night of collection…scoring the bark and tapping the tree, and hanging a small clay bowl from the trunk to collect the drips. It can take 2–3 days before the latex will fill the cups

The workers, who make about 300–400 baht per day (that’s about $10 USD) rotate through different fields where we have staggered collection schedules, so they are out every night, year round.

To create a rubber tree farm, saplings must be 5–7 meters apart, 20 square meters around each tree, 80 trees in one field of a farm. Trees will live 50–60 years before they stop producing enough latex, they are then cut — the wood is sold, and the land allowed to sit for a short time before planting new trees, seeds are first grown to 50 cm, then planted into fertilized /soil pouches until reach 2.5 meters in height, they are then ready to be transplanted into the ground.

We then need to wait about seven years for the trees to grow and be ready to produce latex — so we need to plan finances carefully to have enough savings to last those seven years without any revenue temp. Needs to be about 30 degrees (Celsius) as the trees grow we must add fertilizer..clean the land, and some water (not a lot) dry season

Surat Thani receives about 1.8 meters (that’s over 6 feet) of rain per year..the bulk of it during the monsoon season of JULY-NOVEMBER, and located about 8 degrees north of the equator, the province has the correct temperature. As well, the soil is incredibly rich, and there’s no need to rest fields for much time between crops.

Rrices used to be as high as 170 baht per kg of raw latex…now it’s down to 35 baht as global demand has dropped, and more industries are turning to synthetic alternatives

Farmers receive subsidies from the Thai gov’t when prices drop, but the support doesn’t fully make up for the fall in revenue and since 2015 prices have not come back up, and many farmers are now opting to change to DURIAN, a much more lucrative cash crop — there’s a high demand in Chinese markets for Thai Durian, considered the best in the world

As I travelled through Surat thani province this transformation was evident, and it was easy to find what used to be rubber tree fields now leveled and cleared, and young durian trees growing instead. A single Durian tree can produce about 20 of the foul smelling fruit, the size of a watermelon, but three times as heavy with a coarse drab green skin that’s thick and spiked. each fruit can sell for 1000 baht ($30 USD) — .. so that’s — $600 USD per tree, per year, and a farm can have a thousand DURIAN trees.

I also noticed palm oil plantations a plenty, and this is another cash crop farmers are switching to. Palm Oil grows incredibly fast and produces the oily fruits continuously, providing a steady stream of income.

Whether it’s rubber, palm, or Durian, the environmental issues are similar: ecosystem disruption, massive watering (especially for Durian) needs, and the risk of mono-culture agriculture.

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Khun Leung has stuck with the rubber, not wanting to cut down his trees in the prime of their latex life. With 60+ years of experience behind him, he knows the pitfalls of switching too quickly, as the fad today may fade tomorrow. He makes enough to get by, and he doesn’t need to live a life of luxury. His home is not air conditioned, he drives a basic toyota altis, and can count his possessions quickly. He’s happy, and is surrounded by friends and family. He has his health, and Thailand has universal free health care, and he doesn’t need to worry about that.

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I’d like to thank Khun Leung for his time and hospitality, and Khun Gade for the translation help.

Thanks!

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