The current situation of low level of natural rubber prices which have lasted now for several years has led to a great social and economic hardship in natural rubber producing countries.
In order to provide the greatest possible evidence of the effect of rubber crisis, share a brief description of the impact of the crisis in your country particularly with respect to poverty.
The main use of natural rubber "NR" is in the manufacture of tires of vehicles. NR dominated the market until scientists in Germany & the U.S.A succeeded in producing a synthetic alternative of it , namely, SBR "Styrene-Butadiene Rubber". This copolymer was as good as NR for the use in tires.
NR & SBR share the market nearly 50:50 so the competition between the 2 products has minimized or prevented a crisis which will result by raising the price of any one of them.
In case a hard disease strikes NR plant, this will be an advantage to the manufacturers of SBR. Tyre's prices will go up & this will hit those who own cars but I do not think that this, alone, can cause poverty.
To solve the impact of rubber crisis in poor countries, we have to set into consideration two major aspects;
1- Natural rubber (NR) includes a high percentage of impurities which is not preferred in the modern industry.
2- Synthetic rubber shows high properties better than NR.
Therefore, the struggle of the poor countries is facing a problem of treating NR to get high quality, but it's costly.
Even though NR is representing about 40% of the rubber mixture with SBR but this doesn't support NR prices. I think they need to search to improve NR characteristics by removing the fats and other bio-components using low-cost chemicals or techniques.
The effect of NR Price crisis on the poverty level in Nigeria cannot be overemphasised. There is a great deal of poverty in Nigeria, NR used to be a mainstay of the economy of the Niger-Delta region and part of the south east. The crash in NR has disencouraged farmers for venturing into NR tapping and farming. In the 70s and early 80s there was a boom in the rubber industries in Nigeria, families were meeting their financial obligations, in terms of providing for the immediate needs of the family because the industry was booming, price was stable and a lot of people went into the rubber industry either as farmers, tapper, or middlemen doing purchase and as transporter for the rubber industry, there was an engaged financially rewarding value chain in the rubber industry which served as an occupation for the various participants. The crash in price has brought a lot of disenchantment and discouragement into the industry leading to loss of hop and its attendant poverty to all.Also the Nigeria government has not helped matters, they have not shown leadership in the Rubber sector of the economy, many of the rubber trees have aged, there is no deliberate policy to replant these trees also much of the rubber plantation's have been reclaimed for farming other crops because of lack of incentives by the government.
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