mRube, the electronic trading platform promoted by Rubber Board will go live from June 8. KN Raghavan, Executive Director will launch the beta version of the electronic platform at a function in the presence of the Rubber Producer Society and other industry representatives.
The e-market for rubber will be a game-changer in the rubber marketing system. Though rubber trade possesses an innate advantage of high-level marketing efficiency, the trading system has not upgraded with changing requirements of the consumer sector.
“The good thing in the Indian rubber marketing system is relatively high price realisation by growers,” said Binoi Kurian, Deputy Director, Marketing, Rubber Board.
Being an industrial raw material, the quality of rubber is always an area of concern. Rubber being a major raw material in the manufacture of an automobile tyre, consistency in quality is highly imperative.
On the other hand, Rubber Producer Societies and dealers are not often proportionately paid for the good quality produced by them. The e-market market is conceptualised to directly link buyers and sellers so that their product requirements can be gainfully managed through this electronic market, he said.
A proactive measure
The rolling out of an electronic market for rubber has been taken up as a proactive measure for better price realization by growers and to upgrade the rubber trade system in the country by exploiting technology-based applications.
The electronic trading platform is contemplated to complement the existing trade system by bringing in more transparency and market visibility. It is expected that e-trade could bring more business to the existing rubber dealers, processors, and manufacturers by reaching out to new sellers/ buyers, even in far-off places, he added.
The Ahmedabad-based i-Sourcing Technologies is the technology partner. mRube follows a simple one-time registration. User details will be fetched from the Board’s licensing portal once they input their license number in the e-market portal. An OTP-based validation will be done by the system for completing the user registration.
The salient features of mRube are borderless trade; confidentiality in trade; personalised trade pages; quality certification; escrow account facility; interest-free advance facility; filter options; legalised trade contracts.
According to Kurian, the electronic market for rubber is expected to strengthen the rubber marketing system in the country by integrating the upstream and downstream segments.