After 2 years of widespread disruption, the Covid-19 pandemic was finally brought under control in 2022 as people around the world started to adjust to a life with Covid-19 as a normal part of it and business activities could again resume.
However, the global economy in 2022 had to contend with the Russia-Ukraine war, which caused an upheaval in energy prices and spurred global inflation. Economic growth was also constrained by the zero-Covid policy of China, a major player in the global economy. High volatility, particularly in commodity prices and currency exchange rates, was the theme of the global economy this past year.
Despite a challenging economic climate, Sri Trang Group still continued its steady growth, both in natural rubber production capacity and sales volume, which increased by 13 percent and 15 percent, respectively.
We understand that technology is key to steering the Group forward as well as taking the natural rubber industry to another level. We have accordingly employed automation to increase production efficiency and developed applications, “Sri Trang Friends” and “Sri Trang Friends Station,” that provide rubber farmers with increased access and introduce traceability to the Group’s products The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and raw material procurement through the applications currently accounts for 100 percent of the total volume.
In 2022, we launched the application “Sri Trang Friends Station” to facilitate the sale and purchase of natural rubber and introduced the “Super Driver” service to accommodate rubber farmers who face logistical constraints s in selling raw materials to the Group. We will keep working to improve the applications this year with a view to building a natural rubber ecosystem, driving growth, and setting a new industry standard amid the fast changes of the current digital era.
Sri Trang Group remains committed to being the world’s leading natural rubber company with a sales volume of 1.5 million tons in 2022 and plans to increase production capacity to 3.98 million tons per annum to achieve a sales target of 2 million tons this year. In the glove business, Sri Trang Gloves (Thailand) Plc. (STGT) has been among the leading global producers for over 30 years. Currently, the global glove industry is still going through a transitional period after the height of the Covid-19 era. In response, we are focused on cost efficiency and believe that we will be able to get through this challenging time on the strength of our competitive advantages
Aside from operational growth, we are equally focused on sustainability, with details of what we have accomplished on the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues as follows:
- Environmental: We have implemented initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions including the installation of rooftop and floating solar panels. Additionally, over 28,000 rais of our rubber plantations have received FSC certification.
- Social: We put an emphasis on the benefits and living conditions of employees, provide equal opportunity to disabled people and take an equal and fair approach to human resources.
- Governance: We operate with transparency and have received various accolades as inclusion in the THSI index for 8 consecutive years, membership in the Thai Private Sector Collective Action Against Corruption (CAC), and an excellent corporate governance score from the Thai Institute of Directors (IOD).
Even though the Company had to grapple with many difficulties during the past year, we have been able to overcome the challenges on the strength of our expertise and experience of over 35 years. We will build on the strengths of our operations to ensure that we will continue to grow and take our operations to new heights.
As Chairman of the Board of Directors, I would like to thank all employees for their hard work and dedication as well as all stakeholders who have supported Sri Trang Group throughout the years I wish for the continued support this year so that Sri Trang Group, alongside Thailand’s natural rubber industry, will continue on a path of long-term, sustainable growth.
Dr. Viyavood Sincharoenkul
Chairman
Sri Trang Agro-Industry Public Company Limited