India rains delay cotton, sugar cane, rubber harvest

21 | 10 | 2010

Harvesting of cotton, sugar cane, soybean and rubber is likely to get delayed due to the current unseasonal rains in India, government and industry officials said on Monday.

The key growing states in the country have been experiencing rains over the weekend and the weather department has forecast this to continue for four more days.

The delay in harvesting will support prices of these commodities that are already higher, they added.

Western state of Maharashtra, the biggest producer of sugar cane and second biggest producer of cotton and soybean, received rains over the weekend.

"Soybean and cotton harvesting is getting delayed due to fresh showers. Today also there are reports of rains in a few areas," said a senior official with the Maharashtra government's agriculture department based in Pune.

"Cotton harvesting in many areas is not possible in next five days," said the official, who declined to be named.

Southern state of Andhra Pradesh, the third biggest cotton producer in the country, has also been receiving rains, hindering the harvesting.

On Saturday, the price of the country's key Shankar-6 cotton variety hit a record high of 41,000 rupees ($925.5) per candy (356 kg), up over 77 percent from a year ago.

Southern state of Kerala, which accounts for nearly 90 percent of the country's rubber output, has been getting rains for over the past one week.

"Rubber tapping will not improve unless rains stop," Biju Thomas, vice-president of the Indian Rubber Dealers Federation, told Reuters.

India's natural rubber production in 2010/11 is likely to fall short of the estimated 893,000 tonnes due to excessive rains, Sajen Peter, chairman of the Rubber Board, had said earlier this month.
On Saturday, the spot price of the most traded RSS-4 rubber (ribbed smoked sheet) was 18,050 rupees per 100 kg--near its record high of 18,600 rupees, the Rubber Board data showed.

In Maharashtra, where sugar cane crushing has already been delayed by over a fortnight, fresh showers have ensured that large-scale crushing will not begin in October. "Fields are wet. They will take at least two weeks to become dry. Hopefully, in the first week of November most mills will begin operations," said an official at the state's Sugar Commissioner's office.

Wet soil makes transporting cane to factories difficult.

On Sunday, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, which account for more than 85 percent of the country's total soybean output, received rains.

"We were expecting soybean arrivals to pick up from this week, but again rainfall has started," Radha Vallabhaji Purohit, a dealer based in Nagpur, Maharashtra.

"We have to wait for a few more weeks to see peak arrival season," he said.

Source: Reuters

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