O J's Corner : Reflections

Natural rubber

The property of rubber is its elasticity. It stretches and returns to its base. Rubber prices have been bloating recently. One hopes its present peaking prices would not plummet and boomerang on the growers subsequently.

All right, Australian aborigines had used a weapon called boomerang when they were hunting.

The weapon was nothing but a curved flat piece of wood that they throw, that can fly in a circle and come back to them after hitting the target.

There are several reasons for the booming prices. Monsoon times are off-season for latex production, as there cannot be universal rubber tapping.

Of course, our growers, who can afford it, set up plastic shades just above the tapping groove so that the rains would not spoil the latex collection.

It is beneficial for them, as the net prices, after taking care of added expenses, would not be that scant.

A price of Rs 107 for a kilogramme of natural rubber is not bad, and that has been the highest ever fetched by the grower.

Coupled with the scarce availability here during the off-seasons, the international natural rubber production has come down substantially.

The main producers are Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. Moreover, China has stepped up launching rubber-based ventures, consuming natural rubber substantially.

And there is no let-up in the consumption of natural rubber by the US and Japan.

This does not mean that in the market-driven world economy, potential growers are sitting idle. There is a concerted effort in Vietnam to raise rubber plantations. The labour is cheap, cultivable land is available, blessed by conducive climate.

Coming to India, the Rubber Board itself has been propagating cultivation in the North-Eastern States. Already, the pitch has been laid well in Tripura, Asom, and Meghalaya. The farmers own lands, measured in sizes of hills and not hectares, where cereals and pulses are grown by way of shifting cultivation. They grow these in some patches of lands a year, reap the crop and abandon it. Next time, they grow it in different plots and patches.

The Government of India has been encouraging rubber cultivation in these areas through the Rubber Board. Within a few years, availability from the Seven Sisters (the seven North-Eastern States) would be substantial. The output would maroon the Kolkata market. Keralites’ sale in Kolkata market would come down.

However, since the world market is growing substantially, the demand-supply ratio would be irregular, and conducive to the growers for now.