Continuing fall of natural rubber price has a knock-on effect on the sales of Kerala-based chemical companies like Periyar Chemicals and Kemstok Petrocids.
Hurt by the sharp fall in prices, farmers in the state have lowered natural rubber production significantly, leading to a slowdown in the sales of products like formic acid, the coagulant for rubber latex production.
“Over the last one year, we have lost 90% of our business, which is directly linked to the total tapping days of the year. What we have noticed is that bigger rubber farmers who depend on labourers to tap trees have stopped production citing unviable prices,” said C Sreenarayanan, works manager at Periyar Chemicals. “Usually we produce 100 tonnes during the April – July season, but it came down to 10 tonnes in the last season,” said Reez K R, owner of Kemstok Petrocids Company at Ambalamugal, Kochi.
Thomas K V, owner of Muvattupuzha-based Geo Thomas & Co, said the sales of formic acid within Kerala have fallen by 30%. “Over a six-month season, we normally produce 250 tonnes which has gone down by one third,” he added.
The companies are also experiencing sluggishness in the sales of fungicides, chemical compound for fixing rain-guards and aluminium appliances for handling latex. “Our production of rain-guarding compound has dropped to 5 to 6 tonnes from the normal 50 tonnes we sell during the four-month period,” said Reez.