Thread: Rubber trees 101

Hi James. I have changed the name on my photobucket account to james the idiot and left a message that you're an idiot.

Yeah the Chinese are out to screw the world allright, according to this article they can produce high quality tyre's at a fraction of the cost of the European competitors The Market for Tyres in East Africa

Originally Posted by piwanoi

Yeah the Chinese are out to screw the world allright, according to this article they can produce high quality tyre's at a fraction of the cost of the European competitors The Market for Tyres in East Africa

Damn barbarians.
How dare they....

Originally Posted by thaimeme

Originally Posted by piwanoi

Yeah the Chinese are out to screw the world allright, according to this article they can produce high quality tyre's at a fraction of the cost of the European competitors The Market for Tyres in East Africa

Damn barbarians.
How dare they....

Nowt new cos the Ethnic Chinese have run Thailand both politically and the economy for quite a spell.

Originally Posted by jamescollister

car sales world wide are up,

Better check that out in Russia Jim, not doing so good in this economy...

So OkrRkr you're a rubber adviser/expert? Why don't you save your photo history and lay a nice photo spread on the Teak Door business threads for us to view? Don't waste all the good stuff on rebuttals to Jim, he ain't listening anyway...

Maybe Jim as an Aussie check Should out his own Country ,all this mumbo jumbo clutching at straws does not hide the simple fact that the rubber trade is well and truly fucked for the forseeable future Holden confirms it will leave Australia in 2017 | Business | The Guardian

Originally Posted by piwanoi

Maybe Jim as an Aussie

He's a Brit, not an Aussie. He moved to Oz but he's on eof you lot.

Btw, piwanoi - thread is rubber trees. Why not discuss China elsewhere

Originally Posted by ltnt

So OkrRkr you're a rubber adviser/expert? Why don't you save your photo history and lay a nice photo spread on the Teak Door business threads for us to view? Don't waste all the good stuff on rebuttals to Jim, he ain't listening anyway...

I kind of fell into it.

My wife and I were both working in Singapore for US MNCs after our time in Tokyo, my wife for a Big Four consulting firm and I was with a US IT company.

We went to Phuket on vacation and drove by a rubber plantation, so we stopped and had a look and what we saw shocked us. The living conditions of the tappers was abysmal - so we decided to do something about it.

My father in law has rubber and palmoil plantations in Negeri Sembilan, Perak and Selangor so we studied his methodologies and worked on them.

We both quit our jobs and moved to Thailand and built a factory for rubber enhancement and research in Chanthaburi and two sites in Isaan - near Loei - for bio-diesel on a small scale. Community-based, 5k litre max a day transestrification method that involved the whole community.

Neither of us are Thai, though I was born in Bangkok when my father was posted there, but we'd done quite well in our lives so why not give something back.

We worked on a minimal return basis - products going cost plus 10%. Which we used for further testing and development . . . it went ok for a while . . . until the Thai greed entered the room

We also developed a substitute for the nasty acids used for coagulation and sheet making etc....

It's a shame that people like james don't take kindly to advice - it's free and non-binding, of course . . . and remain ignorant and their arrogance keeps them in the unsustainable situation they are in. Just watch some of james' videos on youtube.

Ockerrocker, you really get around a lot, weren't you working as a consultant in Vietnam for a big rubber company, think you were panamahat then, or did you forget.

Your tales are so full of holes, Singapore today, few weeks age BKK and the middle east.

Why don't you posted the name and address of this alleged factory doing research, or do you just give money to Thais for fun.
All rubber licences are registered by the rubber board, so go on prove me wrong.

Originally Posted by ltnt

Better check that out in Russia Jim, not doing so good in this economy...

Bit slow on the news there, Russia just ordered an extra 80,000 M/T a day or so ago.

FFS - Jim quit while you're behind, I am embarrassed for you.

Originally Posted by OckerRocker

We both quit our jobs and moved to Thailand and built a factory for rubber enhancement and research in Chanthaburi and two sites in Isaan - near Loei - for bio-diesel on a small scale. Community-based, 5k litre max a day transestrification method that involved the whole community.

Well done. Can't green ya, but deserved. Still would like to see a thread about your experience and photos. Pretty interesting.

Originally Posted by jamescollister

Bit slow on the news there, Russia just ordered an extra 80,000 M/T a day or so ago.

Today's Bloomberg states Russian car sales down 50% due to the stifled Russian economy. Jim, do you take everything personal or are you just an attack bunny by nature? Must have been great for those prisoners back when you were the boss man eh?

Originally Posted by jamescollister

Ockerrocker, you really get around a lot, weren't you working as a consultant in Vietnam for a big rubber company, think you were panamahat then, or did you forget.

Your tales are so full of holes, Singapore today, few weeks age BKK and the middle east.

Why don't you posted the name and address of this alleged factory doing research, or do you just give money to Thais for fun.
All rubber licences are registered by the rubber board, so go on prove me wrong.

You really are an idiot the guy posted pictures of a rubber plantation with the procedure for extracting the solution (hint have a good look at the last one). No surprise he moves around a lot like many others here he travels on international business. What is so unusual or unbelievable about that?

Originally Posted by Ronin

Originally Posted by jamescollister

Ockerrocker, you really get around a lot, weren't you working as a consultant in Vietnam for a big rubber company, think you were panamahat then, or did you forget.

Your tales are so full of holes, Singapore today, few weeks age BKK and the middle east.

Why don't you posted the name and address of this alleged factory doing research, or do you just give money to Thais for fun.
All rubber licences are registered by the rubber board, so go on prove me wrong.

You really are an idiot the guy posted pictures of a rubber plantation with the procedure for extracting the solution (hint have a good look at the last one). No surprise he moves around a lot like many others here he travels on international business. What is so unusual or unbelievable about that?

Whatever any one says or quotes figure's , the simple facts are that the rubber trade here in Thailand is acutely depressed ,now one can beat about the bush and quote this that and the other as it appears is Jim's want, its just a simple fact ,of course I could be wrong here but Jim seems to think others are gloating ,which is anything but the truth at the rubber farmers sad demise', I spoke to 3 rubber farmers today ,non of them intend to tap this season , the reason being they said is any idiot can work for fuck all , and in the end all we are doing is adding to the glut .

Originally Posted by jamescollister

Your tales are so full of holes, Singapore today, few weeks age BKK and the middle east.

Oh dear . . . a small mind trapped in a grotesque head.

Singapore - five years+
Thailand one year in one stretch . . . oh, and I was born in Bangkok - wrap your head around that
The Middle East - Qatar, Oman, Dubai etc... Yes, indeed . . . did you miss my short travel reports?

Just accept that I travel a lot for business. You and I are nothing alike, never were, never will be. You were a cop in the UK, moved to Oz and worked in prisons . . . then you ended up in prison. Now you're hiding out somewhere in backwater Thailand eking out a living and disillusioned.

I've always had international jobs, whether I've lived in the US, Europe, Oz or Asia. Just accept that. Many people around like me - we do exist. Many on this forum even.

You're an envy-riven idiot.

Originally Posted by Iceman123

FFS - Jim quit while you're behind, I am embarrassed for you.

Astounding, really. He makes piwanoi seem reasonable

^This is a great thread. It's like a Jerry Springer Special on Jim's brain melting. It's not nice to enjoy the failures of others, but Jim is such an arrogant, ill-informed idiot it's hard not to watch this slow-motion train wreck of a life.

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

^This is a great thread. It's like a Jerry Springer Special on Jim's brain melting. It's not nice to enjoy the failures of others, but Jim is such an arrogant, ill-informed idiot it's hard not to watch this slow-motion train wreck of a life.

On the contrary DK I highly doubt any one on these boards enjoys the failures of others, as it does not mean just Jim, but countless others who have staked their money and their future which looked to all intents and purposes a good investment a few moons ago ,especially bearing in mind that the depressed market in Rubber is in no way any fault of their own

^Quite true. I meant no offense to others who farm and have fallen on hard times. I was nothing but a small farmer for a few years who watched crops ready to harvest get wiped out in typhoons two years running, I have nothing but respect for those who till the soil. I simply think Jim is an idiot...hardly representative of any group.

Originally Posted by piwanoi

but countless others who have staked their money and their future which looked to all intents and purposes a good investment a few moons ago ,especially bearing in mind that the depressed market in Rubber is in no way any fault of their own

It's their greed that flooded the market Pi. In 2000 the rubber price collapsed. The government decided to cut back production by destroying 2% of the trees every year there after I believe. Then in 2007 there was a 'gold strike' in rubber price. So farmers replanted again causing a glut and a price collapse again. They only have themselves to blame Pi. It is their fault caused by greed.

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

Originally Posted by piwanoi

but countless others who have staked their money and their future which looked to all intents and purposes a good investment a few moons ago ,especially bearing in mind that the depressed market in Rubber is in no way any fault of their own

It's their greed that flooded the market Pi. In 2000 the rubber price collapsed. The government decided to cut back production by destroying 2% of the trees every year there after I believe. Then in 2007 there was a 'gold strike' in rubber price. So farmers replanted again causing a glut and a price collapse again. They only have themselves to blame Pi. It is their fault caused by greed.

I could be wrong here but I seem to remember that in 2005 /2006 the Govt at the time was giving rubber tree seedlings to encourage farmers to start growing ,I also seem to remember that the scheme was was highly controversial because of the graft and corruption involved, with accusations flying about that many top politicians were suspected of having their fingers in the pie , as I am not 100% certain on this maybe some one out there could shed some light on it ,cos if its true one could hardly blame the the farmers for taking the Govt up on the offer .

Excuse my ignorance but I fail to understand why so many farmers are not cutting based on the current price. I believe someone was quoted as saying that it costs 65 baht or thereabouts to cut and perhaps process 1 kilo? Okay there is fertiliser and maintenance of trees yada yada but 65 bt a kilo??? Maybe I misunderstand?

Cutters and farmers get 40-50% of the sale price of raw rubber; surely a percentage of something is better than nothing.

Certainly prices are way down and yield in kilos is down in dry season but still?

And why has this, once haven of sanity, become a sniping battle ground one asks???

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

Then in 2007 there was a 'gold strike' in rubber price.

Sorry I think I should have said '2011'.
Obviously Pi someone had their fingers in the till in the past. This is Thailand. But before anyone invests money into something then the history of that product needs to be investigated. Whether the spike in the price in 2011 was manufactured then I don't know but history prior to that was not good. If someone came to me in 2005/06 and told me to plant rubber but get no return on it for 6 years then I'd have said 'fook off. I really don't see how a rural Thai farmer could accept the same offer.

Originally Posted by crepitas

Excuse my ignorance but I fail to understand why so many farmers are not cutting based on the current price. I believe someone was quoted as saying that it costs 65 baht or thereabouts to cut and perhaps process 1 kilo? Okay there is fertiliser and maintenance of trees yada yada but 65 bt a kilo??? Maybe I misunderstand?

Cutters and farmers get 40-50% of the sale price of raw rubber; surely a percentage of something is better than nothing.

Certainly prices are way down and yield in kilos is down in dry season but still?

And why has this, once haven of sanity, become a sniping battle ground one asks???

I don't know of many rubber farmers hereabouts who are not tapping only the 3 I spoke of earlier and they are all well heeled farangs

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

Then in 2007 there was a 'gold strike' in rubber price.

Sorry I think I should have said '2011'.
Obviously Pi someone had their fingers in the till in the past. This is Thailand. But before anyone invests money into something then the history of that product needs to be investigated. Whether the spike in the price in 2011 was manufactured then I don't know but history prior to that was not good. If someone came to me in 2005/06 and told me to plant rubber but get no return on it for 6 years then I'd have said 'fook off. I really don't see how a rural Thai farmer could accept the same offer.

I'm going to make a few inquirys as to what I wrote earlier is kosher or not ,and yeah I would say Fook off too, but the problem here as you are most likely aware is many times the farang has no say in the matter ,only the extended family and his Thai wife , his word is not needed, only his money

Pragmatic , I've just had a word with Jan ,she remembers quite vividly were the Govt was handing out free rubber tree seedlings she thinks its about 5 years ago ,one thing she is certain of though is they was giving out free seedlings

Yep just phoned a good mate of mine he said the same as Jan and said that this guy did quite well out of the scheme