Natural Rubber (NR) production in the country is showing an increasing trend with the production during November recording a 19% rise as compared to the production during the same period last year, officials of the state-run Rubber Board said on Tuesday.
India is the world’s second-biggest consumer of the commodity and the world’s fifth-biggest rubber producer. The country produced 655,000 tonne of NR in the 2014-15 crop year. (Reuters)
Natural Rubber (NR) production in the country is showing an increasing trend with the production during November recording a 19% rise as compared to the production during the same period last year, officials of the state-run Rubber Board said on Tuesday.
India is the world’s second-biggest consumer of the commodity and the world’s fifth-biggest rubber producer. The country produced 655,000 tonne of NR in the 2014-15 crop year.
Production during November 2016 is 63,000 tonne, whereas it was 53,000 tonne in November 2015.
Increase in production during April-November 2016 as compared to the same period last year is 12%, Board sources said. Total production in the current fiscal up to November is 4,28,000 tonne whereas it was 3,82,000 tonne in 2015. If this trend continues, production of NR during the fiscal is expected to reach the anticipated 6.54 lakh tonne.
Higher imports of NR into the domestic market has led to a sharp decline in prices hurting more than 12 lakh growers involved in growing natural rubber. There was a decreasing trend in the production of NR for the last few years. Untapped holdings, climate change and shortage of tappers were the reason for this. Growers were steadily abandoning tapping due to lower returns and the tapping area on the total area had touched an ominous level of 56%.
Since 2011-12, NR production and productivity has been steadily coming down while the imports have been steadily mounting and consumption has marginally gone up.
