Rubber is one of the most important products to come out of the rainforest. Red Indian, ancient tribe of South America, called it 'Caoutchoue', meaning of which is 'Crying Tree'. The reason is that when it is cut off with knife or sharpen tools, its natural latex automatically comes out as a tear of tree. Though indigenous rainforest dwellers of South America have been using rubber for generations, it was not until 1839 that rubber had its first practical application in the industrial world. In that year, Charles Goodyear accidentally dropped rubber and sulfur on a hot stovetop, causing it to char like leather yet remain plastic and elastic. Vulcanization, a refined version of this process, transformed the white sap from the bark of the Hevea tree into an essential product for the industrial age.
The major commercial source of the latex used to create rubber is the Para rubber tree, Hevea brasiliensis (Euphorbiaceae). This is largely because it responds to wounding by producing more latex. Other plants containing latex include fig s ( Ficus elastica ), euphorbia s, and the common dandelion . Rubber is an important plant not only for world economic strategies but also for the use of living of humankind. Natural latex is one of important raw material available for making various kinds of products in heavy industries such as motor and vehicle industry, kitchenware and house ware.
Today Asia is the main source of natural rubber. Over half of the rubber used today is synthetic, but several million tons of natural rubber are still produced annually, and is still essential for some industries, including automotive and military. In addition to this, Natural Rubber now finds extensive use in soil stabilization, in vibration absorption and in road making. A variety of Natural Rubber based engineering products are developed for use in these fields.
The main crop from rubber plantation is latex, a milky white dispersion of rubber in water, which is harvested by the tapping process. Two to three hours after tapping, the latex collected in the cup is transferred to a clean bucket. About 70-80 per cent of the crop from a rubber plantation is in the form of latex.
The latex which gets solidified in the tapping panel (tree lace) and the collection cups (cup lump) also form part of the crop and are collected by the tapper in a basket just prior to tapping. The latex split and/or overflowed to the ground (earth scrap) when gets dried up is also collected as scrap once in a month. These are collectively called coagulum.
Latex and field coagulum is highly susceptible to bacterial action and therefore it is essential to process these into forms that will allow safe storage and marketing.
Latex can be processed into any of the following forms:
Field coagulum can be processed only into crepe or block rubber.
A major quantity of natural rubber produced in this country (about 74.7%) is marketed in sheet form at present, as it is the oldest and the simplest method of processing latex into a marketable form.
The rubber tree grows in tropical climates and is cultivated in many countries. Asia has continued to dominate the world supply of natural rubber, averaging more than 90% of total world production. Top 3 Rubber producing Countries in the World are Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Other countries producing rubber are Vietnam, Liberia, India, USA, China, Japan etc.
India is one among the top ten rubber producing countries. An estimated 60,000 hectares of land is now under rubber cultivation, and in the next five years, the area under the "liquid gold" cultivation would be doubled.
Kerala is leading rubber plantation state in India. The first commercial rubber plantations in India were established at Thattekadu in Kerala in 1902. But wide cultivation of rubber started after 1940 in Kerala. The places in Kerala where rubber is grown are Malanaadu , Idanaadu, Kottayam, Palakkad.
ndia's northeast has the potential to transform itself into the world's largest natural rubber producing region, and the country's second rubber-based industrial park is being set up in Tripura to boost the industry.
World natural rubber production was 6.8 million tons during 1998-2000. It is projected to reach 7.9 million tons in 2010. The annual growth rate would be 1.3 % in the current decade, which is significantly below the 2.9 % during the past decade.
Rubber is produced entirely in developing countries and Asia is the largest producing region. It is projected that total production in Asia would reach 6.8 million tons by 2010, more than 85 % of world output, with an annual growth rate of 1 % . Compared with the fast growth last decade of 2.7 % , the slower growth is largely due to further contraction in Malaysia and Sri Lanka, which have made efforts to diversify to more remunerative crops.
A huge domestic market growing rapidly because of the huge production of passenger and commercial vehicles ensures a better future for consumption of rubber products. As 65% of the rubber goes into automobiles for various usages, the Indian Rubber Industry is set to grow at a fast pace.
| Particulars | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 |
| PRODUCTION | 825.3 | 864.5 | 831.4 | 862 | 903.7 |
| CONSUMPTION | 861.5 | 871.7 | 930.6 | 947.7 | 964.4 |
India is the one of the top ten rubber producing countries in the world. The Indian Rubber Industry is a very important industry in Indian Economy. This industry has tremendous chances of growth, which in turn can lead to a tremendous growth in export opportunities .India exports to over 85 countries, including USA, Germany, France, U.K, Italy, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Africa, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh.
| Particulars | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 |
| EXPORT | 60.4 | 46.9 | 25.1 | 29.9 | 27.1 |
| IMPORT | 86.4 | 77.8 | 177.1 | 190.7 | 213.8 |