At a stakeholders' meeting held at Kottayam on Friday, tyre manufacturers and rubber products makers have proposed the setting up of a buffer stock for rubber, citing the disparity between the production and consumption levels in India.
"We put forward the idea of forming a buffer stock of 30,000 tonnes of natural rubber funded by the public-private partnership (PPP) model. During the peak production season, rubber could be stocked systematically and released during the lean months," said Rajiv Budhraja, director general of Automotive Tyre Manufactures' Association (ATMA).
All India Rubber Industries' Association (AIRIA) and ATMA also met Rubber Board officials and the representatives of rubber farming community to discuss the possibility of this proposal in Kerala.
Under the proposed model, the funding expenses would be met by the consuming industries or the state government on behalf of the producing community. "A third option is the funding by the central government through the department of commerce," said Budhraja.
According to him, India follows a unique demand-supply equation for rubber, with domestic production higher than consumption for four months in a year followed by consumption higher than production in the next four months. Both the production and consumption match only for one or two months. "With a buffer stock in place, industry can import rubber on a calibrated manner," he noted.
However, M C George, the national trustee of Indian Farmers' Movement (Infam), sounded quite skeptical of the industry's move and said: "This is like a cartel, with the government and the industry as members, trying to control the price of rubber."
According to S Ratnakumaran, MD of Kerala State Co-operative Rubber Marketing Federation (Rubbermark), the agency may soon be able to restart the procuring of rubber to stop the price fall in Kerala.
J Thomas, the rubber production commissioner with the Rubber Board, said the current decline in rubber price is due to the excess supply of the commodity in the global market.
Average price of RSS-4 grade natural rubber has slid to Rs 143.80 last month from Rs 162.38 per kg in April 2013. It further dropped to Rs 138 by the end of the first week of May.
Source:- timesofindia.indiatimes.com
No comments:
Post a Comment