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Rambutan Takes Over Kerala's Rubber Landscape as Prices Slide
Rambutan now covers 25,000 acres in Kerala, yielding Rs 1,000 crore this season. Farmers in the rubber belt are switching to the fruit as prices and labour for rubber dwindle.
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Every June, monsoon clouds gather over central Kerala. Patches of the state's rubber-growing landscape turn bright red. Thousands of rambutan trees burst into fruit, their hairy crimson shells hanging from branches that until a few years ago would have yielded latex.
For decades, rubber defined the economy of Kerala's midland districts. Falling prices, labour shortages and erratic weather pushed small farmers to look for another source of income. Many now believe rambutan is the answer.
The fruit, once found only in home gardens, has become one of Kerala's fastest-expanding commercial crops. The Rambutan Mangosteen Farmers' Organisation says the crop now covers nearly 25,000 acres across the state. This season's harvest produced around one lakh tonnes and generated an estimated Rs 1,000 crore in revenue.
The economics work on a single-tree scale. M C Saju, president of the organisation, said the crop starts yielding from the third year. "If a tree produces about 30 kg in the third year, it will produce about 50 kg in the fourth year and about 70 kg in the fifth year. As the years go by, the yield keeps increasing and can reach up to 300 kg per tree," he said.
At Rs 100 per kg, a 300 kg tree generates Rs 30,000 a year. "Whatever crop we cultivate on one hectare, the maximum earning capacity is usually around Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 3 lakh. Rubber does not reach that level even if the price goes up to Rs 300," Saju said.
A farmer from Ernakulam district said the fruit had transformed his farm's finances. "This season I got Rs 14 lakh from one hectare of rambutan. My total expenditure was only about Rs 60,000. This is the fourth year since I started getting yield," he said.