Minister calls for more rubber acreage in S’wak
SAMARAHAN: The Ministry of Rural Development encourages Sarawakians to participate in the rubber industry.
Its minister Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad said Malaysia imported about 60 per cent of the latex and he believed Sarawak could help overcome the shortage of latex given its vast land size.
He said although he was satisfied with Sarawak Rubber Industry Smallholders Authority’ ( Risda) success in opening up 27,000 hectares of land for rubber rep-planting projects over the last 12 years, much more land in Sarawak could be developed into rubber estates.
“With cooperation and commitment of both the federal and state governments we can in fact further expand the rubber acreage and production in Sarawak, which will benefit many more smallholders and help Malaysia to reduce the import of latex,” he told a press conference after the official opening of the Sarawak Risda office here yesterday.
He expressed confidence in the operation of the Risda Office in Sarawak now that the agency has its own building.
Abd Latiff said in Sarawak majority of the rubber produced by the smallholders are Standard Malaysian Rubber (SMR) sheets which fetch lower price than latex.
“If we look at the post Covid19, the demand for the latex had increased because of the demand in medical gloves and other products from natural rubber latex.
“Although we are the number one producer of medical glove in the world, most of the raw material, latex are imported from our neighbouring country,” he said.
He said this was because the number of smallholders producing latex in the country is too small to meet the demand.
Earlier in his speech, Abd Latiff said a total of RM336 million had been allocated to Sarawak Risda to help smallholders in the rubber replanting project in the state over the last 10 years.
He said RM32.2 million has been allocated to Sarawak Risda for the potential of 128,000 smallholders for this year.
He said of this amount, RM25.3 million was allocated for the development of the replanting programme, covering a total area of 10,798 hectares, under the 10th and 11th Malaysia Plan.
He said the remaining allocation is for the development of infrastructure, training, entrepreneurship, productivity and new product development.
“I understand that Risda now has office in every state, 54 district offices and 149 station offices to provide assistance to over 500,000 smallholders throughout Malaysia with an allocation of RM521 million,” he said.
Deputy Minister of Rural Development Datuk Henry Sum Agong, Kota Samarahan MP Rabiah Wang and Risda chairman Dato’ Mohd Salim Mohd Sharif were also present.
With cooperation and commitment of both the federal and state governments we can in fact further expand the rubber acreage and production in Sarawak, which will benefit many more smallholders and help Malaysia to reduce the import of latex. Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad