Sri Lanka’s rubber industry, in its 150th year is struggling-By Arundathie Abeysinghe
Sri Lanka’s rubber industry is on the verge of collapse due to lack of focus by authorities during the past several decades, price escalations, trees growing old and “step-motherly treatment” for a plantation crop that was considered to be gold more than 70 years ago. This year is the 150th anniversary of rubber (introduced in 1876) being planted in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). According to Emeritus Professor Asoka Nugawela, former Director, Rubber Research Institute of Sri Lanka, “in major rubber growing plantation companies in the country, the productivity levels achieved has declined by around 50 per cent in 2025.”
Meanwhile, as revealed at a recent media briefing, Harin de Silva, Chairman, Colombo Rubber Traders Association said “when I came to the industry in 2002, production was 130,000 metric tonnes. That has dropped to 70,000 tonnes today.” Damitha Perera, a Director at Forbes & Walker, said “while Sri Lanka exports high quality latex crepe, the only such producer in the world used in the production of niche products, Sri Lanka imports cheaper raw material to cater for tyre manufacture.”
According to scholars, although, “celebrations of a historic event of a product that has assisted the country in earning valuable foreign exchange should be held this year, rubber industry is on the verge of collapse.”
Senior agricultural academics Sarangi Dissanayaka and Damith Tennakoon were of the view that “in 1960, the country exported 107,000 MT (107 million kg) which means Sri Lanka had sizable local production. Yet, currently, production has decreased to 69,200 MT (69 million kg) from 98,600 MT (98 million kg) during 2014 to 2024. At present, the bulk of raw rubber required for the country’s burgeoning value-added rubber industry is imported from diverse countries which would never have happened, if the country grew its production and growing space. Ironically, Sri Lanka is the main manufacturer of the best quality latex crepe rubber (the purest form of natural rubber available in the market) in the world and also the largest exporter of latex crepe to the global market. Among its achievements are that Sri Lanka is the largest exporter of industrial solid tyres and the fifth largest exporter of latex gloves to the world.”
Meanwhile, “between 2014 and 2024, the land extent under the rubber industry has also drastically decreased from 133,000 to 84,000 hectares (207,568 acres), whereas the extent under production in 1960 was 668,213 acres. Thus, natural rubber production and land extent have indicated a negative growth of 2.98 per cent and 3.68 per cent per annum respectively, during this 10-year period. If this trend is allowed to continue, the rubber industry that had earned over US$1 billion per annum in foreign exchange whilst assisting the livelihood of thousands of families and servicing our natural environment may ultimately get eliminated”, academics Sarangi and Damith emphasized.
According to industry stakeholders Waruna Samarawickrama and Shirantha Alwis, “this drastic decline in land productivity is in the background of increasing costs, especially, worker wages and agro-chemicals, with no corresponding increases in selling prices. The current situation in the rubber plantation sector will considerably lower the revenue generated while increasing the expenditure leading to detrimental cash flows, including low investments in the sector, although, 2026 marks a century and a half years since the first rubber seedlings were introduced to the country. It is from Sri Lanka that the natural rubber cultivations had spread to the present-day giants of the industry in the Asian region. From the inception, the natural rubber industry in the country has played a key role in economic development, providing foreign exchange, including employment generation as well as mitigating impacts of climate change.”
