Heavy Monsoon Affects Rubber Output

Due to heavy monsoon, agriculture production in Kerala has been affected. Rubber is the most affected sector. It is estimated that around 20 per cent of the production has been lost during this season which in turn affected the market supply.

The slowdown in supply is commendable in the lot varieties of natural rubber. The processing of rubber sheet, black pepper, dried ginger etc has also been affected by the heavy monsoon. In fact, this monsoon recorded the highest rainfall in Kerala in the past 40 years.

Reports of large scale losses has been recorded from the high ranges, especially, in the southern districts. Tapping cannot be done in the rubber plantations and rubber tradings has almost come to a standstill. But the situation has not been helpful to push up the rubber prices as there is a huge stock of around 1,88,000 tonne in the market.

The traders said that business activity is not taking place as the industry sector, especially, the tyre industry is reluctant to procure rubber in large scale. The ongoing slowdown in the rubber based products market is the main reason for this.

According to traders, the price level of natural rubber has been almost steady for the past one week. RSS 4 variety is currently being sold at a price tag of Rs 33.50 per kg and best lot is available at Rs 31 per kg. Price of ISNR 20 variety is Rs 27.50 per kg. There market could expect some improvement only by the middle of next month, say traders.

The markets of black pepper, dried ginger, coconut oil, copra etc are also facing a similar slowdown due to heavy monsoon. Trading in the coconut oil and copra markets has come to a halt for the past ten days.

Around 200 bags of dried ginger comes to the terminal market here on a daily basis which was earlier around 1500 bags, say exporters. The export demand is not picking up as there is less enquiries from the Gulf, Europe and the US. The traders said that demand from north India is being picked up slowly.