Natural Rubber – Production & Consumption: Global Trade Flows and Potentially Noncompliant Indonesian Rubber Cases with the EUDR

This is the third and last report in a series of pilots under AidEnvironment’s Realtime Deforestation Monitoring (RDM) system, that aims to expands its RDM system to new geographies and commodities, in this case rubber. The report addresses global production and consumption patterns as well as trade flows and socio-environmental impacts linked to rubber. The potential noncompliant Indonesian rubber case studies on Triputra and Socfin highlight the challenges of (remote) monitoring EUDR compliance linked to the rubber sector, the availability of public data sources to allow for monitoring, and transparency and traceability issues. 

Under the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), rubber is one of the seven commodity products under the scope of Regulation. Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam were the top-3 global producing countries in 2022, and among the top-5 suppliers of natural rubber to the European market between 2021-2023 (next to Côte d’Ivoire and Malaysia). In the EU, 75 percent of the natural rubber consumed is used in the tyre industry. Therefore, tyre companies such as Michelin, Pirelli, and Goodyear, and automakers, such as BMW, Mercedes, Renault, and Volkswagen are large, European-based companies that have a crucial role in demand and consumption dynamics, influencing trade flows and the supply chain itself through their purchasing practices.

This pilot was developed with the support of the European Climate Foundation.