Import of rubber has become an "irritant": Nirmala Sitharaman

Chennai, Sep 2 (PTI) The Centre would soon bring in anational policy on rubber, as imports of the product havebecome an "irritant" to the domestic market, Union MinisterNirmala Sitharaman said here today. "Though the policy (on rubber) is ready, it has beengetting delayed. We will announce it soon," Sitharaman saidduring the Regional Editors’ Conference here. She further said several rubber manufacturers look forimported rubber as it is "cheaper" than the ones produceddomestically. "We have taken steps to control imported rubber, which hasbecome a huge irritant," she said, adding that import ofrubber becomes a critical component as domestic production"falls short" of demand. Pointing out that the government has taken up varioussteps for cultivation of rubber, Sitharaman said, "we arefunding non-traditional areas to grow rubber." "Tripura has done very well. Even some parts of Odisha,north Andhra Pradesh are also interested to do. We need morerubber to be cultivated in this country," she pointed out. Earlier, on the production of spices in India, she said,the Centre has set a target of USD 3,000 million throughexports of spices, by 2017. "Production of spices in the country comes to around60 lakh tonnes, of which 14 per cent are exported to more than150 destinations around the world. We have aimed to achieveexport of spices, to USD 3,000 million, by 2017," she said. Sitharaman noted that the Spices Board had set up cropspecific parks in states like Kerala, Rajasthan, MadhyaPradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh to boostcultivation of those crops that grow in specific location. In order to promote spices that are state specific, shesaid, "Chilli has a big presence in Andhra Pradesh, Telanganaand Karnataka. So, we have to make sure we have a Centre inKarnataka for chilli production." "Similarly, we will have a centre in Madhya Pradesh thatwill take care of coriander seeds ," she added.(MORE) PTI VIJROH BNANU