The consumption of natural rubber rose by 3% to 80,500 tonne in February against 78,000 tonne in the same month last year.
Production of the commodity, however fell marginally to 57,100 tonne in February 2012 as compared to 57,600 tonne in February 2011, Rubber Board data said.
Imports of Natural rubber rose more than two-fold last month to 22,924 tonne from 8,458 tonne in the same period last year, whereas, exports fell by 88% to 951 tonne against 7,951 tonne in the same period.
In the first 11 months of the current fiscal, natural rubber production rose 4% to 841,500 tonne, as against 807,550 tonne in the same period of 2010-11 fiscal.
The consumption was up 2% to 8,80,920 tonne during the April-February period this fiscal from 867,705 tonne in the same period last fiscal.
The imports, rose to 185,851 tonne in the April - February period this fiscal from 183,084 tonne in the year-ago period, while rubber exports rose to 24,586 tonne from 21,908 tonne in the same period.
According to the board's estimates, India will produce 9.02 lakh tonne rubber this fiscal, while the consumption is estimated at 9.66 lakh tonne.