Association as Automotive Tyre Manufacturers (ATMA) In a five-year project jointly implemented by the Rubber Board of North East Bengal and West Bengal, the four major tire makers are investing Rs 11,100 crore to increase rubber plantations. India has a huge gap between demand and supply of natural rubber and is heavily dependent on natural rubber imports, said KN Raghavan, Managing Director, Rubber Board, in an interview to Indian newspaper Torustan (PTI) in Guwahati on Friday.

He said, “In 2021-22, India’s natural rubber consumption is 1.23 million tons against domestic rubber consumption of 770,000 tons. The demand for natural rubber is expected to increase to 2 million tons by 2030.

Vietnam imported 5.46 million tons of rubber, mainly from Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Cte d’Ivoire (Côte d’Ivoire), with exports reaching Rs 7,500 crore in the last fiscal year, Raghavan said.

“In this context, ATMA has recommended to increase domestic production of natural rubber. After stakeholder discussions, we decided to initiate a special program because of the huge potential of rubber cultivation, land availability and suitable climatic conditions in North East India. It was decided.” Added.

Satish Sharma said that Apollo Tires, CEAT, JK Tire and MRF have jointly committed Rs 11 billion of “commercial investment” over the next five years to increase investment in seven states in the region, including rubber plantations in West Bengal.

He added, “This is the first project in the world to work with a government agency to increase natural rubber production to increase the supply of a strategic raw material.”

As part of the project, ATMA plans to construct 100 square meter rubber plantations in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and West Bengal. Development of 200,000 hectares of rubber plantations.

Sharma, former director of Apollo Tyres, said that despite the huge logistical challenges, the industry body had last year will face 550 transported 10,000 plantation material from Kerala to the North East.

Asked if the planned production of natural rubber would be suitable only for the tire industry, he said, “No. Four of our companies have invested money, but the results will be used for the entire tire industry.” “The rubber industry.”

China produces 775,000 tons of natural rubber annually, 73% of which is used in the automotive tire industry. The rest is used for bicycle tires, conveyor belts, balloons, condoms, shoes, and more.

Raghavan said, “Currently, the northeastern states contribute 18% of the production. Once an additional 200,000 hectares of rubber plantations are set up under the scheme, the share of the northeast is expected to increase to 32 percent.” .

He said that the project will improve socio-economic conditions as it involves farmers with less than an acre of land.

Raghavan said, “Thus, 200,000 hectares of farms will directly benefit nearly 2.5 lakh farmers and their families. We are contacting the village heads who are identifying such land for this project.” .

He added that training and skill development are key components of the project, including infrastructure development of training facilities, and best practices and technical training programs for farmers and harvesters.