KUALA LUMPUR; The National Association of Smallholders wants the government to set a RM4/kg minimum price for rubber at farm level and establish a price stability fund to help rubber smallholders.
“Rubber prices have been falling since 2012, but have dropped to an unacceptable level in 2014.
“With rubber prices having slumped to as low as RM1.80/kg now from over RM7/kg in 2011, smallholders have been hit the most, with many falling into poverty,” secretary-general Zulkifli Mohd Nazim said in a statement today.
A proposal for the government to set aside one per cent of the nation’s annual rubber export revenue of about RM33 billion for the price stability fund was submitted at a Budget 2015 consultation in June last year, he said.
“What’s needed is a long-term solution,” he said, adding the association welcomes the 2015 Budget allocation of RM100 million for a regulatory price programme at farm level and RM6.40 million in soft loans for smallholder cooperatives to buy rubber directly from smallholders.– Bernama
