MAFF mulls holding first national rubber tapping contest by year-end
MAFF mulls holding first national rubber tapping contest by year-end
The ministry will celebrate the 100th anniversary of rubber trees
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) plans to hold the first national rubber tapping contest and celebrate the 100th anniversary of the oldest rubber tree in Cambodia by the end of this year.
Dith Tina, Minister of MAFF, Wednesday held a meeting with the officials of the General Department of Rubber and rubber investment companies to discuss ways to hold the 100th anniversary of the oldest rubber tree and the first national rubber tapping contest.
According to an MAFF release, the highlight of the meeting was to organize the rubber tapping contest is to attract attention and encourage the rubber workers to continue to work harder and also to encourage people to participate in this mission.
“Cambodia has been pushing the rubber sector to grow further to become a high-market industrial crop and can be processed into finished products such as gloves and other usable goods,” said Tina.
Lim Heng, Vice President of the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce (CCC), told Khmer Times yesterday that the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the oldest rubber tree in Cambodia and the rubber tapping contest will be held in November this year in Chup Rubber Plantation in Tbong Khmum province.
Heng, who also took part in the meeting with the Minister of MAFF said that the meeting focused on the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the rubber tree in Cambodia.
“Along with celebrating the 100th anniversary, we will also celebrate the rubber tapping contest for skilled workers and there will be prizes for them as well. The event aims to show our people and the international community that Cambodia has rubber trees that have been planted for 100 years,” Heng said, adding, “It will help promote the rubber sector to become more famous internationally for its quality and encourage continuous cultivation.”
Heng added that the Minister of MAFF also encouraged the supply of domestic rubber as much as possible by taking raw materials for making gloves or other consumables items in the country.
“I believe that after celebrating the 100-year-old anniversary of the rubber tree and the rubber tapping contest, it will encourage our people and we will get better prices for Cambodian rubber,” Heng said.
It may be noted that the scoring for the tapping rubber contest has to be accurate by focusing on the speed of the tapping rubber, beauty and especially the right technique of tapping rubber.
Last year, during a visit to the Cambodian Rubber Research Institute in Tbong Khmum district’s Chiror 2 commune, Tina he said that the ministry would turn a rubber plantation in Tboung Khmum into a museum for rubber tree seed research.
He pointed out that what is important is that [we] can consider it as a rubber museum and can be considered as a national treasure. It will provide expertise in the preparation, protection and treatment of trees in rubber plantations.
According to the report of the General Directorate of Rubber of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Cambodia exported more than 110,000 tonnes of dry rubber in the first five months of 2024, an increase of 2.43 percent in the same period of 2023.
The country earned more than $165 million in revenue from exports of rubber products, an increase of nearly 13 percent over the same period, said the report.
