Rubber production rises 10% in six months

KOCHI: The natural rubber production has jumped 10% for the six months ended September 2016, from a year ago. The output for the period stood at 3,05,000 tonnes. In the month of September alone the production showed a 20% increase at 60,000 tonnes.


The growth in production was 8% in August. According to Rubber Board, it has been able to reverse the decreasing trend in production through integrated efforts with rubber producers’ societies and board offices at the regional and field office level.


The board is expecting the production to touch 6.54 lakh tonnes this year. It had dropped to one of the lowest in the recent times at 5.62 lakh tonnes, around 13 % decrease from the year before.


The rise in consumption for six month period was 5.6 % at 518,930 tonnes. In 2015-16, the consumption had dipped 3% to 992,235 tonnes from a year ago.


But despite the improvement in production, the imports continued to increase. For the six month period, the imports touched 250,275 tonnes, 7% higher from the same period a year ago. In 2015-16, NR imports touched a record 458,374 tonnes.