Rubber farmers to produce motorcycle, tractor tires

The woes of the country's rubber farmers who have suffered from very low prices for their raw rubber will soon be over.By February next year, the Philippine Rubber Farmers' Association (PRFA), a farmers group organized with the support of the Department of Agriculture, will start processing their raw rubber into motorcycle and small tractor tires under the proposed brand name Pilipinas Agila Tires. The rubber farmers themselves will market the tires made out of their farm produce to motorcycle owners and hand-held farm tractors manufacturers and farmers.This will virtually free the rubber farmers from the control of traders who base their buying prices for raw rubber called cuplumps on world market prices which are low now.This major development was achieved yesterday after a Valenzuela, Bulacan-based tire manufacturing company agreed to a tolling arrangement where it would process the farmers' semi-processed rubber called SPR 20 into motorcycle and hand-held tractor tires.Leo Tire Manufacturing President William Lim and North Cotabato Board Member Socrates Piñol, who was designated by PRFA President Armando Pedregoza to represent him in the negotiations, agreed to the following arrangementsand1. The PRFA, which will soon be transformed into a farmers' cooperative, will buy the raw rubber produce of its members and process this into SPR 202. The SPR 20 produce of the PRFA will be sold to Leo Tire Manufacturing which will then process it into two fast-moving rubber products - 3.00 x 17 motorcycle tires and hand-held tractor tires3. Leo Tire Manufacturing will release these products to the PRFA at factory prices4. PRFA in turn will sell the tires to motorcyle owners and fabricators of hand-held tractors.The Department of Agriculture will provide technical and financial support to the PRFA to implement this project.It was Lim himself who recommended that the PRFA first focus on the two products - motorcycle tires and hand-held tractor tires - because these are the fast-moving products in his company's experience.Leo Tire Manufacturing produces popular tire brands like Manhattan, Bulldog and Leo tires.Government statistics show that there are 3.58-million registered motorcycles in the country most of which are using tires manufactured abroad.Processing farmers' raw rubber into high value products is the solution identified by the DA to break the control of traders and middlemen on the pricing of rubber cuplumps.From a high of P100 per kilo about 10 years ago, prices of raw rubber have dropped to only P25 per kilo today prompting many farmers to cut down their rubber trees and shift to other crops.Rubber tree farming has been a steady source of income for many farmers in Mindanao, including Palawan and now Negros Oriental.The rubber tree has also been identified by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources as a reforestation tree.The PRFA will seek the support of the Department of Trade and Industry so it could get the necessary government licenses to manufacture and market its tire products next year.Lim said that the first tire mold for Pilipinas Agila Tires will be ready by January 2019 and the first tires produced by the farmers themselves could roll out by February 2019.