Harrisons Malayalam, country?s largest rubber plantation and producer of natural rubber spreading across 7,000 hectare, is eyeing Africa, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Ghana, Indonesia among host of countries to put up plantations on a larger scale. The company is aiming at expanding its plantation through joint venture route or leasing land on long-term basis to meet growing demand from both domestic as well as in the international markets going forward.
The company is also looking at north-eastern state of Tripura for a possible rubber plantations in non-conventional areas, said C Vinayaraghavan, vice-president (rubber division), Harrisons Malayalam.
?The move is aimed not only tapping growing demand for natural rubber (deficit is expected to shoot up to 5,00,000 tonne by 2015 from current level 1.5 lakh tonne) in India but also to tap international markets where the commodity is found be in huge demand,? said Vinayraghavan.
?As our existing plantations are more less matured or getting old, the company is producing only half of the 10,000 tonne a year capacity as it has undertaken replantations with superior RR11400 series which expects to give 25% additional yield than the traditional rubber plants. We have completed a few thousands of hectares and expect to complete the replantations with new series by 2015,? said both Santosh Kumar, chief manager, rubber marketing and Vinayraghavan.
?We will look at size not less than 10,000 hectares in those countries and we will grow new series/varieties such as RR11 400, 429, 430 to yield more. We hope to narrow down deals over the next few months,? the officials said.
Apart from tyre industry (which accounts for more than 70%), the demand for natural rubber also arise from latex manufacturers (condoms), glove manufacturers (healthcare), sports goods manufacturers among host of sectors. The percapital consumption in India is very low at 1.5 kg as compared to consumption levels of 11.5 kgs in the US, Japan, Germany among other countries.
?With the expansion of production capacity by tyre manufacturers in India in a big way coupled with the increasing demand from other sectors, we hope the demand for natural rubber will continue to grow manifold and the prices will remain more or less at the current level of above Rs 200 a kg,? the officials said.