Rubber plantation owners in Yay Township, Mon State faced a shortage of labourers as it is the time when cleaning works in rubber plantation and feeding fertilizer to rubber plants have to be carried out but plantation owners faced shortage of labourers according to a rubber plantation owner from Yay Township.

“Most of the rubber plantation workers left Myanmar to work abroad. Some don’t want to come here after they investigated about the stability of the area,” continued the owner.

Last year, workers from Ayeyawaddy and Bago Regions came to work at the rubber plantations but this year due to strict in investigation along the route, they were unable to come, he added.

Some other reasons for shortage of labourers are that apart from stability in the area, there is a huge difference in currency rate. As a result, migrant works prefer to work abroad said an owner from Mawlamyine.

“Some workers worked as plantation workers last year at our plantation but this year went abroad and worked as a rubber plantation worker. But, their wages are different and they don’t need to worry about their safety there. Therefore, only the most trusted people stayed with us.” He added.

Rubber plantations in Mon State start their yearly operations from mid-September to end of May.  There are over 498,000 acres of rubber plantations in Mon State and more than 126,000 tons of rubbers were produced till 2020.