The father of Thai rubber and the first tree at Kantang
Thailand's first clearly documented rubber planting took place at Kantang district in Trang in 1899. The man who did it was Phraya Rasadanupradit Mahisonphakdi, governor of Trang.
The man who started it
His Chinese name was Khaw Sim Bee. "Sim Bee" means "one of good heart" in Hokkien, while "na Ranong" is a royally granted surname, not part of the Chinese name. He was born in Ranong on 8 April 1857, he spoke nine languages.
He is remembered as the father of Thai rubber not for being the first to see a rubber tree, but for turning it into the economy of a region.
The reason was not a vision about rubber
He did not start from a vision about rubber alone. He tried both coffee and rubber.
Rubber was the one that worked. Rubber reached Siam after BE 2425 (1882). In 1899 he planted rubber at Kantang. He had visited Malaya but could not bring planting material back, because Western plantation owners guarded their stock. In 1901 Phra Sathon Sathanphithak brought seedlings back from Indonesia. Those first trees became known as "Thesa trees".
From Trang to the whole country
After his term as governor of Trang he was promoted to commissioner of Monthon Phuket, which let him push planting more widely.
What he started spread across all 14 Southern provinces and then to other regions. Thailand is now the world's largest rubber producer, with 23.82 million rai planted (2024) and over 1.7 million growers registered with the Rubber Authority of Thailand (2022).
Kantang Municipality records that an original tree from the 1901 planting survives.
Why this still concerns us
Our plant is in Trang, the same province where rubber was first planted. We do not use latex. We use the wood from trees that have finished their tapping life.
A century ago he turned a crop with no local value into the income of the South. Today the stumps and roots that used to be left in the field are being turned into fuel for the same reason: something that already exists, which nobody was yet using well.
Read on: rubberwood stumps and roots
Sources
- Kantang Municipality, The first rubber tree in Thailand
- Trang Province, National Rubber Day 2025
- Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning, Art and heritage sites worth conserving
- Office of Agricultural Economics, Rubber production by country, region and province (data as of 7 Jul 2026)
- Thansettakij, Rubber farmers registered with RAOT (24 Sep 2022)
Reviewed by
Morse · Plant Manager, NTC Biomass
Runs the chipping yard in Ratsada, Trang, and takes customer calls directly. Outside figures in this article are cited in the sources at the end.
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