KUALA LUMPUR, May 11 — Malaysia’s natural rubber production decreased marginally by 2.7 per cent to 28,030 tonnes in March 2022 compared with February’s 28,817 tonnes, said the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM).

In its March 2022 monthly rubber statistics publication released today, the department said on a year-on-year comparison, NR production also slid by 22.3 per cent compared to 36,068 tonnes in March 2021.

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said March’s natural rubber production was mainly contributed by smallholders sector (88.3 per cent) compared to estates sector (11.7 per cent).

He said total stocks of natural rubber in March 2022 decreased by 4.4 per cent to 310,332 tonnes compared to 324,659 tonnes in February 2022.

"Rubber processors factory contributed 93.2 per cent of the stocks followed by rubber consumers factory (6.7 per cent) and rubber estates (0.1 per cent),” he said in a statement today.

Meanwhile Mohd Uzir said exports of Malaysia’s natural rubber amounted to 53,328 tonnes in March 2022, an increase of 12.5 per cent against 47,386 tonnes in February 2022.

"China remained as the main destination for natural rubber exports, accounting for 50.6 per cent of total exports in March 2022, followed by Finland (5.9 per cent), Iran (4.1 per cent), Germany (3.4 per cent) and Turkey (3.2 per cent),” he said.

He added that the exports performance was contributed by natural rubber-based products such as gloves, tyre, tube, rubber thread and condom.

He revealed that gloves were the main exports of rubber-based products with a value of RM2.1 billion in March 2022, an increase of 9.1 per cent compared to RM2 billion in February 2022.

Mohd Uzir said the world natural rubber production in 2022 is expected to grow at a slower rate of 1.9 per cent while consumption will be at 1.2 per cent due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and labour shortages as stated by the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) in a monthly report published on April 22.

On the annual performance, he said Malaysia’s natural rubber production in the first quarter of 2022 slipped 18.8 per cent compared to 131,643 tonnes in 2021. — bernama