REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BANJARMASIN -- Rubber price began to pick up on export cut by member countries of the International Tripartite Rubber Council (ITRC) -Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

The world's largest producers of natural rubber agreed to cut exports starting March until August this year in a bid to shore up the price of the commodity.

The agreement followed a steep fall in rubber price over the past several years.

The export cut will total 615,000 tons to be shared proportionally by the three ASEAN countries.

The three countries account for 80 percent of the world's total production of natural rubber.

The ITRC said it was optimistic the export cuts would drive rubber market to recovery after six years of being in deep slump.

Chairman of the South and Central Kalimantan branch of the Indonesian Association of Rubber Companies (Gapkindo)Andreas Winata said the price of natural rubber from that region has increased to Rp16,000 per kilogram from Rp12,000 earlier.

Indonesia will cut exports by 238,736 tons and South and Central Kalimantan would contribute 80,000 tons to the country's share of the cut in the six months period.

Andreas said the cut in exports apparently has caused panic in international market on shortage in supply resulting in surge in price.

In addition, supplies from other countries also declined on long drought, he said.

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