Domestic price spike pulls down rubber export 94%

Country's rubber export during November dropped by a shocking 93.61 per cent to just 794 tonne from 12,440 tonne in the same month a year ago.

India showed brilliant performance on the export front during the last three years and the total rubber export in 2005-06 touched 73,830 tonne.

It is also interesting to note that the county's export story was promising till the end of August and during the June-August period, the total export was 29,000 tonne.

Till October, the total export stood at 49,097 tonne while the closing export figure, according to Rubber Board, during the April-November period was 49,891 tonne.

According to experts and leading local traders, the reversal happened due to a change in price pattern in the global market. For around 20-24 months, local rubber prices were lower than that of global markets like Tokyo and Bangkok by around Rs 10-12 per kg on an average.

This accounted for the country's glittering performance in last two years. But now, the domestic price tags are higher by Rs 7-8 per kg than that of the international markets, resulting in export figures going down drastically.

During April-October, total export increased by 49.6 per cent compared to the same period in last year. But in the April-November period, export grew by a paltry 10.3 per cent. Going by the current indications, it is highly unlikely that the country will be able to repeat its last year's performance.

A large section of the growers and the traders projected an export figure below 60,000 tonne in the current fiscal. Meanwhile, 29,772 tonne of rubber was imported to the country, down by 24.5 per cent, from 39,426 tonne in April-November, 2005.

According to leading traders, import exceeded 31,000 tonne as rubber-based industry in the country switched to import route in order to take advantage of lower prices in overseas market.

The trend in consumption of natural rubber is also not promising since the consumption rose by only 2 per cent during the period between April and November, while production increased by 8.7 per cent. Total production has touched 560,680 tonne while consumption pegged at 542,980 tonne.

Meanwhile, the upsurge in prices continued today as price of RSS-4 grade was quoted at Rs 84 per kg.