Latest News from India - Fall in rubber prices causing concern in Kerala

divspan class=BodyText readability=34Kottayam : Sharp fall in natural rubber prices is causing deep concern in Kerala, which accounts for over 80br /per cent of the domestic production of the commodity.pFarmers, local traders and political parties hold the steady increase in import of rubber by the industry tapping onbr /low tariff rate as the main factor for the declining prices for the domestic output./ppAccording to Jose K Mani, who represents Kottayam in the Lok Sabha and whose Kerala Congress (M) is a partner of thebr /UPA, the Centre is yet to fulfil its promise of lowering the import tariff from 20 per cent./ppThe Finance Ministry is yet to give its nod to this proposal forwarded by the Commerce Ministry on pressure frombr /Kerala, he said./ppThe growers, many of them medium and small holders, are also hit by hike in input cost, especially the wages, andbr /factors like rotting of trees due to excessive rains and paucity of experienced tappers./ppThe farmers, who mostly route their output through local traders, said the actual price they received was less thanbr /the official estimates./pp'Last week alone the price fell by Rs 30 per kg, which is the severest in recent times,' farmer Raju Mathew told PTI./ppThe plummetting prices have left a telling impact in Kottayam, Idukki and Pathanamthitta districts in the Central,br /Travancore region, which has the largest concentration of small and marginal rubber growers apart from several bigbr /and medium sized plantations./ppAccording to the Rubber Board, the domestic price of RSS-4 slipped to Rs 15,900 last week from Rs 18,113 per quintalbr /less than a month ago./ppMany of the farmers are apprehensive that if the import continued at the current level, the prices would dip further.br / Local dealers say it had often been the practice of the industry to manipulate the domestic prices by increasingbr /import during the peak yielding season of October-December. /ppPolitical parties and farmers outfits allege the present situation is the result of the Centre going back on thebr /promise of reducing the import tariff to stave off the price crash./ppFarmers say there had been a mismatch between the input cost and the price they fetch./pp'The wage for tappers was fixed when the rubber price was at its peak. While the price has come down since then thebr /labour cost remains the same,' said another rubber cultivator Bobby from Peermade in Idukki district./ppThe excess rains received by the growing areas during the South West Monsoon this year has also added to the distressbr /of the farmers in the form of largescale rotting of trees, they said. PTI /p/span/divbrbrcentera href=http://www.wizardrss.comPowered By WizardRSS.com/a | a href=http://www.wizardrss.comFull Text RSS Feed/a | a href=http://www.amazon.com/RFID-Blocking-Cards-Identity-Protector/dp/B00CJHZLEWRFID/a | a href=http://www.wpzonbuilder.comAmazon Affiliate/a/center