Thailand, Other Big Rubber Producers Look to Lift Prices.

Sep. 6--The world's top three rubber producers -- Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia -- may adopt a joint export quota to control supply to boost sagging prices, a report said yesterday.

A Malaysian official said that apart from export quotas, a supply rationalisation and stockpile scheme was being considered.

Senior officials of the three countries are meeting in Kuala Lumpur under the Tripartite Rubber Co-operation (TRC) for the third time. It held its first meeting in 2000 in Indonesia.

"We are leaving no stone unturned in devising an effective mechanism to boost rubber prices," the official was quoted as saying by the Business Times newspaper.

Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia together produce 79 percent of the world's natural rubber.

The newspaper said all proposals and recommendations emerging from the discussions would be forwarded to the ministers for adoption tomorrow. At a meeting last July in Bangkok, Malaysian Primary Industries Minister Lim Keng Yaik and his two counterparts agreed to cut rubber output by 4 percent a year from 2001.

"With strong co-operation from all three producers, the TRC can be expected to boost ...