By PTI

New Delhi: Natural rubber production has gone up by 21% in September on the back of conducive climate and higher prices, thus increasing the output so far this fiscal to 3.93 lakh tons -- a growth of 27%.

Natural rubber output reached 79,000 tonnes in September against 65,275 tonnes in the same month last year, a senior Rubber Board official told PTI and added that the overall production so far this fiscal has increased to 3.93 lakh tonnes while it was 3.09 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period.

Keeping pace with production, consumption also rose marginally to 76,000 tonnes in September from 74,590 tonnes in the same period last year. Similarly, the overall consumption during April-September also increased to 4.44 lakh tonnes from 4.22 lakh tonnes during the same period a year ago.

During the period under review, import of natural rubber shot up by 9% to 9,878 tonnes from 9,093 tonnes, while export rose marginally to 1,250 tonnes from 1,166 tonnes.

For the 2008-09 fiscal, the Rubber Board has pegged the natural rubber output at 8.75 lakh tonnes and consumption at 8.99 lakh tonnes. Exports and imports are estimated at 50,000 tonnes and 80,000 tonnes respectively for 2008-09.

In the 2007-08 fiscal, the production of natural rubber declined 3% to 8.25 lakh tonnes from 8.52 lakh tonnes in the previous fiscal while consumption increased by 5% to nearly 8.6 lakh tonnes during 2007-08, against 8.2 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period.