DA eyes Phl rubber for condoms

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Agriculture (DA) is conceiving a plan to boost the Philippine rubber industry’s ho-hum performance – by enticing investors to put up factories to produce condoms locally.

The Philippine Rubber Research Institute (PRRI) said the DA, to which it is attached, is conducting feasibility studies on the possible construction of a manufacturing plant that would produce latex-based medical products, particularly condoms.

“We need to look for potential investors for condom manufacturing because we do not have one here (in the Philippines). All the products that we use are coming from other countries such as Malaysia and Thailand,” PRRI executive director Rodolfo Galang said.

While the Philippines is undeniably a conservative country, Galang said the plan should be looked into from a business standpoint and consider potential economic benefits, such as job generation.

“There is a huge potential. It would help lower population growth and on the economic side, instead of importing the product we would have our own production,” he pointed out.

Galang is yet to quantify the investment needed for the plant, as well as the value it would translate to.

He said producing the products would only have minimal rubber requirement, as a majority or about 70 percent of global production of natural rubber go into tires.

While the plan is still in the early stage, Galang targets a two-year timeline to finish feasibility studies.

“It is also part of our roadmap, which is mainly to increase rubber production,” he said.

He noted there is a market for the new plan, considering the decreasing price of the raw material in the past years.

“The strategy of international rubber associations is to increase the local consumption of rubber producing countries, meaning put up more manufacturing plants for different products,” Galang said.

He said the country’s P12-billion rubber industry remains underdeveloped compared with other ASEAN countries, such as Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

“Even if we have more production, their industry is more developed because they do not sell their raw materials. Their manufacturing industries develop it,” he said.

This is also due to inadequate supply of quality planting materials, deterring efforts in production expansion, low productivity and poor handling, resulting in low-quality rubber.

Galang added that poor rural infrastructure, less investments from private and public sectors and lack of marketing and promotional initiatives in the global market also affect the lagging performance of the country’s rubber industry.