As of 2019,

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

is the sixth largest producer and exporter of

Natural Rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...

(NR), the leader in the production and export of rubber products, the largest consumer of natural rubber and the world's largest

rubber glove A rubber glove is a glove made out of natural rubber or Synthetic rubber. The term ‘rubber’ refers to durable, waterproof and elastic material made from natural or synthetic latex. Rubber gloves can be unsupported (rubber only) or supported ( ...

s producer, with annual rubber gloves exports worth

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

7.3 billion ( RM29.8 billion) in 2020. The

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

resulted in positive impact for the rubber industry as most countries import tons of rubber gloves. The rubber industry's annual growth was 12% more than that of the previous year. On the other hand, top glove factories say that an outbreak at their facilities on 25 November 2020 had negatively affected their trade. Malaysia contributes to 46 percent of total rubber production in the world and produces about 1-5 million

ton Ton is the name of any one of several units of measure. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses. Mainly it describes units of weight. Confusion can arise because ''ton'' can mean * the long ton, which is 2,240 pounds ...

s of rubber annually. The production of rubber has declined from the 1990s, when it used to be 615,222

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

s. Rubber manufacturers in Malaysia include local smallholders,

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

s, multinationals and

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

s with the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Malaysia has a total rubber area of 1.07 million

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

s, out of which 7.21 percent is owned by plantation companies. Ninety percent of production is accounted by smallholders who generally hold less than 40 acres of agricultural land. These statistics remain a major concern for the industry as these smallholders tend to move to other economic activities when the rubber price goes down. The R&D infrastructure developed by

Rubber Research Institute of Malaysia The Rubber Research Institute of Malaysia (RRIM; ms, Institut Penyelidikan Getah Malaysia) is a research center for problems and matters pertaining to rubber and its industry in Malaysia. History On 29 June 1925, the bill to incorporate the Rubb ...

and

Malaysian Rubber Board The Malaysian Rubber Board (MRB; ms, Lembaga Getah Malaysia) is the custodian of the rubber industry in Malaysia. Established on 1 January 1998, it has under its fold three agencies ( RRIM, MRRDB and MRELB), which are now merged into one. The R&D ...

has made significant contributions and serves as a comprehensive R&D set up for a single commodity. Malaysia also produces specialty rubber such as the epoxidized natural rubber (Ekoprena) and deproteinized natural rubber (Pureprena) that can be used in green tires and engineering products. It was made to capitalize on the growing preference for natural and renewable materials. Rubber grades supplied by Malaysia include: * SMR - Standard Malaysian Rubber * ENR, DPNR, and TPENR * Low

Protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...

Latex Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latexes are found in nature, but synthetic latexes are common as well. In nature, latex is found as a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants (angiosperms ...

References

{{Asia topic, Rubber production in
Malaysian Rubber Council