India’s rubber growers propose boycotting local tyre makers

Call it tit for tat or levelling the playing field, but rubber growers in India are threatening to hit back at the country’s tyre makers over what many view as a betrayal by the tyre industry. The Indian Rubber Growers Association (IRGA) has requested local tyre manufacturers purchase rubber from them at the cost they’d pay for imported rubber, and have threatened to boycott tyre makers that decline to do so. In addition, the IRGA has suggested that growers may importing and supplying the Indian market with cheap tyres.

IRGA president Sibi J Monippally accuses tyre makers of making large profits at rubber growers’ expense. “It is time these companies introspect and come forward to support Indian farmers by buying from the domestic market,” he said.