India rubber output seen 60,000 T lower due to rain

By Mayank Bhardwaj

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's rubber output is likely to fall by 60,000 tonnes in the year to March 2008 from an earlier estimate of 803,000 tonnes as heavy rains disrupt collection, the head of a government body said on Tuesday.

"An unusually extended monsoon has hampered tapping," Sajen Peter, chairman of the Rubber Board, said, adding that it was now peak season.

"Production will fall but availability will not be a problem due to good reserve stocks."

Rains dilute the latex extracted from trees and lead to fall off in the number of tappers turning up for work in what is still a largely manual industry.

An outbreak of the mosquito-borne Chikungunya virus in Kerala, which accounts for 90 percent of India's rubber output, had earlier forced the board to cut its forecast from 874,000 tonnes.

The Rubber Board was set up by the commerce ministry to help develop the sector.

Industry fears a sharp fall in output from last year's 853,000 tonnes would lead to an acute shortage in the domestic market, pushing up prices.

"We are worried about availability now," K.T. Thomas, former president of the All India Rubber Industries Association, said.