V.Sajeev Kumar
With India is fetching ₹25,000 crore foreign exchange earnings from the exports of rubber products, Rubber Board has underlined the need for proper positioning of products in the overseas markets.
K.N.Raghavan, Executive Director, Rubber Board said that new manufactures especially in the MSME sector need to constantly showcase their products as they need to make improvisations, innovations and incremental value additions on a near constant basis.
Inaugurating a virtual trade fair, Raghavan said such events would become a harbinger of change for marketing of rubber and rubber products. All stakeholders of the rubber value chain are important for the development of the rubber industry and the virtual trade fair provides the prompt platform that can be utilized by each member of the sector for buying, selling and taking orders to move their business forward. This would also be a perfect place for buyer-seller meets and to showcase rubber and rubber products.
Divakar Nath Misra, Jt. Secretary (Plantations), Ministry of Commerce and Industry lauded the Board for conceptualizing virtual trade fair, especially on the backdrop of Covid pandemic situations and pointed out that there is tremendous potential for expansion of the sector, especially the MSMEs as the country exports around 30,000 rubber products.
Raghavan also released the 42nd edition of Indian Rubber Statistics, handing over a copy to Ronny Joseph Thomas, Secretary, India Block Rubber Producers Association.
Virtual trade fair
Rubber Board is hosting the virtual trade fair with the objective of showcasing Indian rubber products, especially from the MSME sector, in the international market. Indian rubber product exports witnessed an annual growth rate of 4 per cent. However, it is assessed that the Indian rubber industry possesses inherent capacity for further growth. The industries falling under the category of MSME sector in the non-tyre sector could benefit from the trade fair by getting greater exposure to the international market. This is particularly important at this juncture when all sectors are working hard to achieve the export target of $ 400 billion for the current fiscal.
The virtual trade fair will be placed on the Rubber Board website and exporters of rubber and rubber products will be given the opportunity to showcase their products, company profile, product videos, display posters, contact details etc.