KOCHI: The Rubber Board is finalising the contours of a National Rubber Mission to ensure that domestic natural rubber (NR) requirements are met within the country, a top official said.The domestic production-consumption gap in NR continues to be a matter of concern for the Rubber Board and the rubber-consuming industry. Currently, nearly 35% of the domestic demand is met through imports.
Addressing the managing committee meeting of the Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA), K N Raghavan, executive director of the Rubber Board said, a National Rubber Mission is in the works to produce enough NR within the country to meet the demands of the domestic industry and minimise imports.The rubber mission targets new rubber plantations in five lakh hectares of land with the focus being on non-traditional areas, said Raghavan.
Welcoming the proposal of the National Rubber Mission, ATMA chairman Satish Sharma said, “Tyre industry is all for verdant NR plantation in the country for producing rubber that is qualitatively superior and competitively priced. Select ATMA members are already working with Rubber Board on a collaborative project for developing rubber plantations in the North East. Titled North East Mission of Tyre Industry for Rubber Augmentation (NEMITRA), the project aims at developing 2 lakh hectares of rubber plantation in North East and West Bengal in five years.