Rubber production in the country rose 8.4 per cent to 89,300 tonnes during October. The spurt in production was across all geographies of the rubber-growing belt in the country, sources in the Rubber Board said. Clear skies in October after bounteous rains during September were the principal reason behind the sharp rise in production.

Going by the early indications, production during the current month is also expected to look up as weather has remained favourable so far. Given the remunerative prices prevailing in the market, farmers are also putting in extra effort to boost production. The tapping intensity has increased along with growing area coming under rain guarding. With the onset of the North-East monsoon, rain guarding is also expected to enable greater tapping operations, which is likely to boost production during the current month.

Consumption of rubber dipped 6.3 per cent to 76,000 tonnes. However, there has been an improvement of 2,000 tonnes over the consumption last month. Rubber Board sources attributed the fall in consumption to reduced off-take by automobile companies in the Indian market and global uncertainties. The problem has been compounded by a major slack in consumption by one specific Indian company, sources said.

However, the overall consumption for the first seven months of the current fiscal still remains positive. The reduced off-take by automobile companies is just beginning to bite and things will turn positive if the automobile market rebounds in the coming months, the sources pointed out. Rubber production increased by five per cent to 4,80,700 tonnes during April-October 2011.

Rubber imports remained lower during April-October as against the corresponding period of last year. This was in contrast to the export sector which witnessed a strident growth. Rubber stocks at the end of October was 2,47,000 tonnes as against 2,53,877 tonnes last year.

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