The Philippines' Board of Investments has approved a Philippine Pesos 686 million ($16 million) project to establish a new natural rubber plantation at Zamboanga del Norte, Mindanao, local news reports said Friday.
Zanorte Palm-Rubber Plantation will establish nurseries to grow rubber seedling on 2,000 hectares of land at the proposed location.
The plantation will have an integrated processing facility for producing dried rubber and the company plans to sell the production to Dunlop Manufacturing, Yokohama Tire and Bridgestone.
The Philippines produced 395,237 mt of natural rubber in 2010, according to data from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics.
Under Philippine Rubber Roadmap 2011-2016, the industry is aiming for 200,000 hectares of rubber trees by 2016, up from 138,710 hectares at the end of 2010.
