GT Rubber Company, in collaboration with KOLTIVA, maps 15,000 plots, identifies 4,500 farmers, creates a logging-free supply chain.
Thailand, one of the world’s leading natural rubber producers, is undergoing significant transformation as regulatory and market forces converge on traceability and sustainability. At the forefront of this shift is GT Rubber, a key industry player, which has partnered with agri-technology company Koltiva to implement a robust traceability and risk management system designed to comply with EU deforestation regulations. The aim is to implement a comprehensive traceability system that can capture, monitor, and track rubber production from smallholder plantations to export.
Approximately 90% of the world’s natural rubber is produced by smallholder farmers in Southeast Asia, many of whom do not operate within formal supply chains and have limited connections to processors and buyers (SPOTT, 2022). Hence, dispersion, aggregation, and traceability challenges hit most of these farmers.
At a global level, Thailand leads with 34% of the natural rubber produced, followed by Indonesia (26%), Vietnam (8%), China (7%), and India (7%) Although the sector provides livelihoods for millions, its rapid expansion has led to deforestation, biodiversity loss, and land tenure disputes. Fragmented networks of intermediaries, such as traders and aggregators, increase opacity, making traceability and sustainability harder to enforce.
Since 1993, more than 4 million hectares of forest have been cleared for rubber plantations, half since 2000, largely in ecologically sensitive areas, according to a study published in the journal Nature in 2023. However, rubber remains largely absent from global discussions about deforestation despite its significant environmental impact. The ability to trace the source of supply to the farm will determine which exporters continue to have access to premium global markets.
Data-driven infrastructure at the farm level:
GT Rubber is advancing traceability and risk management by deploying a digital system from Indonesian agritech company Koltiva that verifies land legality, assesses deforestation risk, and links farm-level data to sourcing transactions. This granular dataset forms the backbone of GT Rubber’s compliance framework, enabling real-time monitoring and risk flagging. This system prepares the company for seamless integration with the upcoming European Union Information System (EUIS). This requires disclosure of detailed geographic location and verification of status.
