KUALA LUMPUR — The government has made available a RM300,000 soft loan facility for retail rubber traders to make purchases from smallholders at a higher price compared to licensed traders.
Plantation Industries and Commodities Deputy Minister Datuk Datu Nasrun Datu Mansur said the ministry was also implementing a rubber price fixing mechanism by allocating RM6.4 million as revolving capital for cooperatives to purchase rubber.
“To date, there are 18 cooperatives involved in the rubber business and offering an average of between 10 sen to 20 sen per kilogramme higher compared to the licensed rubber traders,” he told the Dewan Negara here today.
He was responding to a question from Senator Siti Aishah Shaik Ismail on the measures being taken to assist rubber tappers affected by low prices.
Meanwhile, Datu Nasrun said as of September this year, there had been 349,248 application for the Rubber Production Incentive (IPG) involving a payment of RM50.98 million to rubber smallholders throughout the country.
“The IPG is activated when the IPG Price Activation Level for SMR20 Free On Board (FOB) is at RM5.50 per kilogramme and RM2.20 per kilogramme for cuplump.
“The IPG is to reduce the burden of smallholders and rubber tappers in the event of a fall in prices,” he added.
Datu Nasrun said the price of natural rubber was at RM8.93 per kilogramme yesterday compared to RM5.15 per kilogramme on Sept 1.
— BERNAMA
