Rubber growers abandon plantations, output falls 25% in November

As growers abandon plantations, India will have to depend on South East Asia for rubber

The long-running problem of drooping natural rubber output continues. October–January is the peak season for production in India but output in November for the RSS-4 grade was 64,000 tonnes, against 85,300 tonnes in the same month of 2013.

According to this trend, India will have a fall in output of at least 10-12 per cent during 2014-15, exacerbating the existing problem for growers, of competition against cheaper imports.

Benny Kuriakose, a local farmer told Business Standard many small and medium growers had stopped tapping for the past couple of years and plan to dismantle their plantation. He said the average daily expense is Rs 1,200-1,500 an acre, including wages; the return is too low. Hence, a sharp fall in production for the past six months.

On the other hand, consumption rose 12 per cent in November to 85,000 tonnes and imports increased 19 per cent from the year before, at 33,156 tonnes. Over April–November, the first eight months of this financial year, imports rose 15 per cent to 298,490 tonnes. In sum, not a cheery portent for the approximately one million cultivators of rubber.