Earlier this month, Chief Mom Officer Emily Blakeney  traveled to Thailand as a 2012 Plan Toys Ambassador. “When I received the invitation to participate as an Ambassador, I immediately felt honored and proud and then excited at the prospect of going to Thailand!” Why not share the excitement? Keep an eye out each week for photos and videos from Emily’s eye-opening experience.

A Brief History of Rubberwood Trees and Plan Toys:

This plantation is actually part of Plan Toys. They have farmers that farm the rubber from the trees. It takes between 25-40 years for a rubberwood tree to be depleted of all of its rubber. It’s at that point that the trees have historically been discarded. It’s the depleted trees that PlanToys uses for its rubberwood. When they started 30 years ago, farmers begged PlanToys to take the trees, for free, as they were no use to the farmers once the latex was gone. Now that rubberwood trees, once they’ve lived past their latex days, can be profitable, it’s become a lucrative business for these farmers.

We met with the owner of PlanToys, and he says, what’s good for the farmer is good for Trang. What is good for Trang is good for me. It was a beautifully wholistic view of the life of the tree, the economy and his business. And, while Plan Toys doesn’t use the rubber from these trees, it’s awesome to see how these trees are farmed, and the rubber produced, and how these families sustain themselves by harvesting rubber.

How a Rubberwood Tree Is Set Up:

There are rows and rows and rows of trees. This plantation is nearly 60 acres. Most farmers are up at 2am and work straight through to 10am to harvest the rubber. The trees produce the most in the cooler temperature, and since by 10am it’s about 100degrees, they have to work in the dark, with lights on their heads.

Every tree has a small cup attached. And, it takes 30 full cups to make one sheet of rubber. And, each tree only gets one “cut” per day. So, this is a very tedious process. These farmers here sell their rubber harvest, both in sheets and in less desirable clumps for nearly $30 a day. Minimum wage is $8 a day. Plan Toys pays it’s employees $10 a day and gives them health benefits, among other things (which I’ll tell you about later). We see here what one cut to a tree looks like. The rubber is white! And, it drips slowly into the cup attached to the tree. It’s amazing. This is a lifestyle.

We were honored to come to this plantation! – Emily