It is a sting that punctured the tyremens? shopping bag. And quashed the rubber farmers? wallet too, at the same time. The mosquito-spread viral fever has bone-stripped the labour force in rubber farms, stock-moving staff and traders to such minimal level that latex production has fallen as never before this month. The short-supply has also send price of RSS-4 grade shooting up from Rs 73 per kilo in mid-June to Rs 83 kilo in mid-July.
?Besides the domestic prices of rubber sheets creeping up, the sheer availability is a vexing issue,? says D Ravindran, director general, Automative Tyre Manufacturers? Association (Atma). Even though on the climb, the Indian price of RSS-4 is sailing at about Rs 8 per kilo lower than the price of its international equivalent. Atma has budgeted 28,000 tonne of rubber imports in July-September.
?Imports are costly now. But, if the farm-to-market stock flow was smooth enough, we could have sourced heavily from Indian farms,? Ravindran told FE. The rubber producers are equally disappointed. Many of them are among the nearly two lakh people in Central Kerala bedridden with viral fever of assorted varieties. About 180 had succumbed to the fever ravage. Over half of the rubber tapping workers are still down with high temperature, rashes and swollen joints. This means it is going to be several weeks before its business as usual in the rubber belt. Rubber Board is yet to complete its computation of fever-related losses. There is a shortfall of about 15,000 tonne in the estimated market arrivals for May-June, says N Radhakrishnan, a leading rubber dealer. Doctors said that the mosquito effect on rubber farm is no one-way street. Vector indices were highest in rubber farms, with mismanaged plastic rain guards luring mosquitoes.