Competition is brewing between India’s north eastern states and the South Indian state of Kerala, known as the latex capital of the country, in terms of natural rubber production.
Kerala accounts for 80% of the total rubber production in the country. But the state’s rubber production has been on the wane. The state produced 648,000tonnes of rubber in 2013-14. This figure came down to 439,000 tonnes in 2015-16.
All other South Indian states that have been traditional rubber growing areas have also been witnessing a dip in natural rubber production in the past three years.The production in Karnataka was 35,230 tonnes in 2013-14. The state produced only 29,400 tonnes of rubber in 2015-16, while the production in Tamil Nadu also dropped from 25,000 tonnes to 19,495 tonnes during the same period.
The reasons are attributed to lower output and increased production cost.
Srijit Sudhakar, a rubber grower in Kerala said, said the drop in South India’s natural rubber production is mainly due to non-tapping as prices went down in the past. As prices picked up in the past 18 months, growers started tapping more. However, many rubber plantations have already shifted to other cash, agri-crops during the past years, and with the increased labour and material cost, latex production has become an unviable exercise, Srijit added.
In contrast, natural rubber production in Tripura, a northeastern state in India, shot up from 39,000 tonnes in 2013-14 to 44,245 tonnes in 2015-16. Similarly, Assam recorded a notable uptick in production during the period from 13,600 tonnes to 14,560 tonnes. The other major rubber producing states are Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, and Mizoram.
“The gap between production and consumption of rubber in the country has led to increased imports. The price of block rubber in international markets is lower than the sheet rubber in the domestic market. This has led to lower price realisation,” commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman said recently.
The cost of production of rubber varies from region to region and depends on a number of factors such as labour wages, value of land, input costs, and more, the minister added.
According to a Rubber Board official, efforts were made to popularise rubber cultivation in the northeastern region which is paying rich dividends now.
“The fall in production can only be attributed to low price in the past. Now the price is at 140 per kg level and the country also witnessed increased rubber production. Hence, the south Indian production is likely to increase. But, the NE story in rubber is here to stay,” said Tomy Abraham, president of the Indian Rubber Dealers’ Federation.