A woman farmer taps dripping resin from a rubber tree in a plantation on Pulau Langkawi Island, Malaysia. We see the lady surrounded by even rows of trees, all carefully spaced when planted. Each cool evening the tapper removes a thin layer of bark along a downward half spiral on the tree trunk. She makes an incision in the bark of the tree and fluid then drains into a collecting vessel. If done carefully and with skill, this tapping panel will yield latex for up to 5 years. Malaysia is one of the top exporters of natural rubber. Langkawi is an archipelago of 99 islands in the Andaman Sea, some 30 km off the mainland coast of northwestern Malaysia.
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