India’s 2013/14 rubber production fell

rubber

India’s natural rubber imports jumped 49.3 percent to a record 324,467 tonnes in the year ended March 31 from a year earlier as excessive monsoon rains hurt production, the state-run Rubber Board said.

The country’s production fell 7.6 percent to 844,000 tonnes in the year, the board said in a statement on Wednesday.

Natural rubber consumption was largely steady at 977,400 tonnes, compared with 972,705 tonnes a year earlier for the country, which imports the commodity from Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand.