KOTA KINABALU, July 6 (Bernama) — The Sabah government does not plan to extend the monthly subsidy enjoyed by fishermen to rubber smallholders and tappers in the state, says Agriculture and Food Industry Minister Datuk Yahya Hussin.
He said international natural rubber prices were low but the commodity was not suffering from volatile price fluctuations.
Tyre grade SMR20 fetched RM5,530 per tonne on June 30, 2015.
“To ease the burden of rubber smallholders and tappers, the government since 2012 has been paying them an output incentive,” he said in reply to a question from Limus Jury (BN-Kuala Penyu) at the state assembly proceedings Monday.
Yahya said the incentive was paid to bridge the price gap in Sabah and the peninsula.
Meanwhile, he said the Federal government paid incentive allowance to rubber smallholders and tappers when the price of SMR20 dipped below RM4,600 per tonne.
— BERNAMA
