Board eyes 4.5% rise in rubber production in Aug-Dec

Even though the prices of rubber are hovering below the Rs 100 mark for the last three weeks, Rubber Board estimates a 4.5 per cent increase in production of natural rubber during the August-December period.

According to the board's estimate, the total production will be 425,500 tonne compared to the actual production of 407,140 tonne during the same period in 2005. This will be slightly higher than 50 per cent of the total targeted production of 831,000 tonne in 2006-07.

In 2005-06, natural rubber production had registered 7.1 per cent growth at 803,000 tonne.

During the current month, the board estimates a total production of 67,500 tonne, while in the same month last year, the total national production was 65,210 tonne.

In September, the board expects rubber production to touch 75,500 tonne (65,210 tonne in September 2005) and during the peak season "" October to December "" the production may rise by 4.23 per cent to 282,500 tonne. In the peak production season of 2005, total production had touched 271,035 tonne.

As per Rubber Board's estimates, in October the production will rise to 85,500 tonne while during the same period in 2005, the production was 81,405 tonne.

During November, the production may rise to 97,500 tonne (93,505 tonne in November 2005) and in December, this will peak to 99,500 tonne (96,125 tonne in 2005 December).

But reports from various production centres indicate a fall in production as against the projected figure of Rubber Board during October-December period, thanks to a bunch of reasons.

Growers believe that there might be a fall in production by 2 to 3 per cent during the peak season, but they summarily rejected an increase in production.

They mainly attribute the drop in rainfall during June and July for the production fall, as this would seriously affect the production in October-December period.

They said that the board's earlier estimate would not be a reality. Meanwhile, production in the April-July period has increased to 168,555 tonne, up by 11.5 per cent than the 151,125 tonne in the same period in 2005. Consumption has shown only a marginal increase of 1.1 per cent at 194,355 tonne.

The consumption from the tyre sector has shown an increase of 4.1 per cent while the non-tyre sector had a negative growth of 2.7 per cent.

Export has spurted by 466 per cent during the April-July period at 28,617 tonne, while this was 5,056 tonne during the April-July period in 2005.