By Shikin Louis
KUCHING, Oct 17: Rubber price imbalances happen due to plantation owners relying on manual labour to carry out rubber tapping or the use of middlemen to send the produce to collection centres, says Deputy Prime Minister Dato Sri Fadillah Yusof.
Fadillah who is also Minister of Plantation and Commodity, said these factors were identified by the Trek Komoditi programme which sees the ministry’s top management team directly visiting and obtaining feedback from smallholders and industry players in the commodity sector.
“If the plantation owners could send the produce directly to the collection centres, the price set would be different than those set by middlemen.
“This is the source of the price imbalance which is due to the practice from the field (plantation).
“This is where we encourage the farmers to sell their produce directly to the collection centres and not go through the middlemen anymore,” he said when responding to Kubang Kerian MP Datuk Ibrahim Man during question time in the Dewan Rakyat today.
Ibrahim was highlighting the issue of price imbalance whereby the ceiling price of rubber is set at RM2.30 but buyers only pay between RM1.70 and RM2 when they buy in villages (direct from farmers).
Earlier, Lubok Antu MP Roy Angau Gingkoi asked Fadillah to state the efforts taken by the federal government to promote and spread information on schemes and assistance available under the latter’s ministry especially for rural areas in Sarawak.
Following this, Fadillah disclosed that under Budget 2024, his ministry was allocated RM100 million under Oil Palm Replanting Programme Incentive which would be distributed as grants and loans to 7,000 oil palm smallholders.
He further said the ministry through Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) is creating awareness on the schemes and assistance available through direct promotion and briefing on the field, special programmes such as Trek Komoditi, conventional promotions by placing posters at palm oil collection centres as well as online platforms and social media.
On rubber, Fadillah said the federal government through Budget 2024 has agreed to increase Activation Pricing Level (PHP) rate for Rubber Production Incentive from RM2.70 to RM3 per kilogramme with an allocation of RM400 million.
“The government will also allocate RM10 million to implement a pilot project on stimulant gas use to benefit rubber smallholders,” he added. — DayakDaily
