Smallholders urged to take advantage of budget

BESTARI JAYA: Oil palm smallholders should take advantage of available funding to replant their plots with high-yield trees to improve productivity.

Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong said rigorous replanting of trees would raise the yield of estates in the country.

He urged smallholders to apply for the additional RM510 million replanting budget announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak yesterday.

This was on top of the existing RM1.75 billion oil palm replanting allocation for independent smallholders.

“This additional RM510 million is good news for some 600,000 smallholders.

“It is available for the next three years to 2020,” he said after Najib launched the Malaysian palm oil industry’s 100th anniversary celebration in Tennamaram Estate here.

Mah said Malaysia was still appealing against the European Union’s (EU) suggestion for a single Certified Sustainable Palm Oil scheme for Europe-bound palm oil shipments.

Leaders of other big exporters of palm oil, including Indonesia, Costa Rica and Ecuador, had reportedly expressed concern over the EU’s discriminatory proposal that would hurt the global palm oil trade.