Yokohama Rubber and RAOT Host Ninth Seminar to Boost Thai Rubber Farmers

In June 2025, Yokohama Rubber and the Surat Thani branch of Thailand’s Rubber Authority (RAOT) delivered their ninth joint seminar aimed at enhancing yield and quality for natural rubber smallholders in Surat Thani. This long‑running initiative continues to align with Yokohama’s sustainable procurement strategy and traceability commitments in Southeast Asia.

Seminar focus and participant engagement

The seminar targeted 50 farm households, building on events held since 2020. Farmers received free, RAOT-developed fertiliser and attended sessions covering:

• Best practices for selecting and planting rubber seedlings
• Benefits and application methods of fertiliser
• Tips for preventing contamination of latex with foreign matter
  Attendees appreciated the sessions for being practical and easy to grasp. Several agreed to regular field monitoring—tracking rubber quality changes with and without the fertiliser and observing seasonal effects.

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Strategic context and procurement policy

This seminar stems from Yokohama’s January 2020 MOU with RAOT promoting economic support for farmers and enhancing supply chain transparency. The action directly enacts Yokohama’s “Procurement Policy for Sustainable Natural Rubber”, adopted in 2018 and aligned with Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR) standards since September 2021. The company’s Thai processing arm, Y.T. Rubber Co. Ltd. in Surat Thani, also conducts ongoing farm surveys and has achieved FSC Chain‑of‑Custody certification as of July 2023.

Enhancing traceability and sustainability

Yokohama has strengthened traceability via initiatives such as RubberWay® Geo‑Mapping, enrolling over 30,000 farms to assess environmental and social risk such as deforestation and labour issues. The programme supports compliance with TNFD recommendations and the EU Deforestation Regulation effective December 2024.

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Broader impacts and circular agriculture

Agroforestry training—conducted in partnership with Songkla University—offers alternative crops to improve farmer incomes during low rubber production periods and enhance biodiversity. Fertiliser-supported seminars help seed improved farm practices, while follow-up surveys allow analysis of quality improvements and seasonal impacts on latex performance.

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Smart agricultural inputs and traceable, responsible sourcing are becoming essential supply-chain standards. These initiatives not only elevate farmer livelihoods and reduce environmental risk, they enhance tyre manufacturers’ compliance with EUDR and deforestation due diligence.

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Tagged with: Yokohama Rubber, natural rubber, sustainable sourcing, Thailand, RAOT, traceability, RubberWay, SGSNR, GPSNR

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