Aimed at developing private entrepreneurship in sheet rubber processing, the Rubber Board has kick-started a series of workshops in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in association with the National Institute of Agricultural Marketing, Jaipur, highlighting the need to improve the quality of sheet rubber.

It is pointed out that a number of growers are now shifting to latex sales rather than processing their produce into sheet rubber due to labour shortage. Besides, inconsistencies in the quality of rubber sheets is often attributed to heterogeneous processing techniques adopted by growers.

According to N. Rajagopal, Secretary, Rubber Board, the requirement for quality sheet rubber has gone up consequent to the radialisation of tyres. Though rubber producer societies have been producing good quality sheets, the volume handled by them is small. Hence, there is much scope for private entrepreneurs in this field.

As there is an increasing demand for sheet rubber, especially from the tyre industry, there is huge potential for sheet processors, who could collect the field latex on a daily basis for conversion to RSS grades. The sale of field latex on a daily basis to such sheet processors could fetch a better price for growers, as the price would be fixed on the basis of the daily price of sheet rubber, which is often higher than the price of ammoniated latex.

The board proposes to develop these enterprises in areas where Rubber Producer Societies and Group Processing Centres are not involved in field latex collection and processing. Sheet processing is an attractive venture for rubber dealers, who are mostly located in rubber growing areas. V.N. Krishnapillai, President of the Rubber Producer Society Kurumkanni, Kanjirappally, pointed out that growers could not justifiably demand any restriction on import of solid forms of rubber if they resorted to marketing their produce as latex.

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