Rubber prices improve
Rubber sector is recovering and auction prices are picking up, said
Director Rubber Research Institute (RRI) Dr. Ashoka Nugawela. At the
September auctions CR-1 grade fetched over Rs. 300/PerKg he said.
He said, that the brokers complain that the supply is still low and
therefore the demand cannot be met. Dr. Nugawela highlighted several
issues that adversely affect the sector at this moment.
 He said that the bulk of our rubber production is RSS grade and it
accounts for 48% of the total production. Although RSS-1 grade always
has a high demand and fetches a high price, our growers do not produce
RSS1 grade. Most of the products are low quality RSS rubber and it
fetches a low price at the auction.
This is harmful to the farmers economy as well as for our export
income, he said.
There are several issues that hinder the production of high quality
rubber. Firstly, the traditional method used to produce RSS grade needs
a change. Secondly, the farmers have no interest to produce RSS1
spending a large sum of money because the buyers, at the farm gate, do
not pay a better price for high quality products.
To address these issues RRI proposes to organise growers at village
level, Rubber Growers Societies, set up modern processing centres for
each society and market the products direct to the exporters.
Dr. Nugawela said that this method has been successfully implemented
in India. There is one such growers society in the Kegalle district and
it is functioning successfully. The potential is there and farmers can
get the support from Rubber Development Department and Thurusaviya to
set up growers societies, he said.
Dr. Nugawela said that there is a high demand for centrifuged latex
and therefore growers are now selling raw latex.
However, in two ways farmers earn losses by selling raw latex.
Firstly the measurement of weight is not measured correctly, due to this
farmers do not get the correct price. Secondly the growers do not get
the RSS1 price by selling raw latex. Therefore, this is not profitable
for the growers, he said.
GW
|
