Kottayam: According to the annual ‘Indian Rubber Statistics’ (IRS) published by the Rubber Board, the Natural Rubber (NR) production in the country showed a steady growth, increasing by 2.1 per cent to 8.57 lakh tonnes during FY 2023-24 from 8.39 lakh tonnes a year ago. NR Consumption also saw a significant rise, increasing by 4.9 per cent to 14.16 lakh tonnes during FY 2023-24 from 13.5 lakh tonnes in 2022-23.
The Rubber Board has shared the key statistics on Natural Rubber production in the country among stakeholders up to August 2024. NR production up to August 2024 is 2.83 Lakh tonnes, 0.7 per cent higher than the corresponding period a year ago. The projection of NR production for FY 2024-25 is 8.75 Lakh tonnes, which will be revisited at appropriate times. This projection implies for the market, and currently, no revisions are required.
In this context, the Rubber Board reiterates that NR statistics for a particular month will be vetted in the Monthly Internal Statistics Monitoring Committee (ISMC) meeting before publishing it, facilitating effective interactions with various Rubber Board departments, including Rubber Production, Research, Climate, Plant Pathology etc.
Rubber prices reached their all-time high of Rs 247 on 09-08-2024. After that, the prices started declining sharply and now are at Rs 200 registering a steep decline of 19 per cent. It is also worth noting that imports from April to September 2024-25 are at 3,10,413 metric tonnes compared to 2,54,488 metric tonnes during the corresponding period in 2023-24, registering an increase of about 22 per cent. The Rubber Board is monitoring the market situation closely and giving suitable policy inputs to the Government of India to stabilize the natural rubber market in the near term.
Meanwhile, the Rubber Board has proposed charging a fee for issuing the required No Objection Certificate (NOC) to import natural rubber (NR). The Central Government is considering the Rubber Board’s recommendation in this regard.
The Board proposes to charge Rs.5,000/- for each consignment. The NOC has been introduced to control the import of low-quality materials of NR variants that are available at cheaper rates into the domestic market. The levying of fees for the issue of certificates will increase the efficiency of the quality-checking procedure. Ultimately, it is expected to improve the domestic market.