QuberTech pioneers new natural rubber source from dandelions

The Eastern Daily Press profiled QuberTech and the reason a company in Norwich is working on a material the world currently grows several thousand miles away.

The short version: the world produces about 14 million tonnes of natural rubber a year and consumes about 15. The deficit is structural rather than seasonal, production is declining while demand compounds, and 85% of supply comes from smallholders in regions exposed to climate stress, disease and geopolitical risk.

QuberTech's response is to change the crop and the setting rather than the material. Dandelion roots produce the same natural rubber industry already specifies, and growing them in a controlled environment decouples the supply from weather, season and geography while making every batch traceable back to source.

For the region it is also an industrial story. The work is done at Norwich Research Park, alongside the John Innes Centre and the wider UK crop science base.