A question I’m always asked and the answer is how long is a piece of string depending on where you farm,soil conditions,weather , how ofter you fertilise, when you tap etc,etc  .However I shall have an attempt. The last forecast for Thailand was for yields of 18,000 hg/ha. This approximately equates to 300kg per rai.( Last university studies came up with a figure of 285 kg a rai which ties in closely with this figure )  .

Looking in all the forums you see wild figures banded about of up to 600-800kg a rai but no evidence as to where theses figures come from. In fact if you look at the predicted yields for the very latest hybrids that are not yet commercialy available they give figures of up to 450kg per rai. So how can the older trees produce more !!.

The recommended planting density is approximatley 80 trees per rai. (
This ties in with what we have planted i.e almost 1000 trees on approx
12 rai). This means that 1  tree will optimistically yield 3.75 kg per
year.

Therfore last year when prices were high you could potentially make 280 bahts a tree per anum. I did the calculation on what we were actualy making on our mature trees and that came out at 200 bahts a tree. This figure also doesn’t take into account running costs such as fertiliser and man-power etc. This year with rubber prices down by half then the returns are down dramticaly.

Can money be made from rubber – yes – if prices recover . Can you make a  fortune that most people seem to think on all the forums – NO. You only have to look at how the rubber tappers live. They take between 40-50% of the revenue for their labour. If there was that much money to be made they would all be living in smart houses and driving around in a mercedes. How do they live – In a shack and get around on a motorbike. QED.