More bounce for rubber industry soon
Sanjeevi Jayasuriya
The outlook for the rubber industry is good as the recession is
slowing down. The prices for pale crepe and sheet rubber fetched higher
prices at the recent auction, said Representative of the Rubber Traders’
Association of Sri Lanka at the Exporters’ Association of Sri Lanka
Ranjit A. de Z. Siriwardene.
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Rubber tapping |
The price for Ribbed Smoked Sheets (RSS) number one was Rs. 208 and
pale crepe number one (best grade) was Rs. 207 per kilo at the last sale
auction. “These prices are good for the plantation sector as they could
earn a higher income.
We need to increase the quantity produced as continuous rain has
affected the production volume”, he said. The Government has embarked on
a project to plant 4,000 hectares of rubber in the Moneragala area.
“Under the project, 1,500 hectares have already been planted. The
selection of the Moneragala area to plant rubber trees was to enable
more days of tapping as it is a dry area.
It would also increase the yield and production. At present
production in areas such as Matugama experience continuous rainfall.
This affects tapping”, he said.
“We need to compete with mass scale producing countries such as India
and China. There is a shortage of rubber due to the bad weather and also
sellers opt for latex rubber.
This is an input and it is important to focus more on crepe rubber as
the country could earn more foreign exchange.
We are the only manufacturer of pale grade rubber,” he said.
The latex product is used by local industries and due to this
export-oriented pale grade, rubber manufacture is low.
The country should increase its pale grade production to benefit from
the world market price increases, he said. |
