Natural rubber consumption in the country rose by 3 per cent to 7.42 lakh tonnes in the first three quarter of this fiscal.

Its production also increased by about 2 per cent to 6.93 lakh tonnes during the same period, Rubber Board data said.

India consumed 7.19 lakh tonnes tonnes of natural rubber and produced 6.82 lakh tonnes in April—December of 2011—12 financial year.

Import of natural rubber rose 23 per cent to 1.69 lakh tonnes in April—December of 2012—13 fiscal from 1.37 lakh tonnes in the year—ago period, while the exports declined by 53 per cent to 10,608 tonnes from 22,763 tonnes during the same period.

In December last year, the production of natural rubber increased marginally to 1.10 lakh tonnes from 1.07 lakh tonnes in the same month in 2011, while, its consumption declined to 78,000 tonnes from 84,795 tonnes during the corresponding period.

Rubber imports fell sharply to 13,611 tonnes in December last year from 21,146 tonnes, whereas, exports of the commodity rose to 1,429 tonnes from 1,077 tonnes in the same period.

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