Malaysia changes policy of its rubber industry

Malaysia changes policy of its rubber industry

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysia announced it was revamping its natural rubber policy, saying current productivity needed to be enhanced to match rising competition from other producers.

"The cabinet has directed my ministry to draw up a new policy for the rubber industry so that its potential could be maximized for better returns," Primary Industries Minister Lim Keng Yaik said.

Lim, who launched talks Thursday among experts to help draft the policy, said a new blueprint for the rubber industry would enhance technology transfer to smallholders and improve yield to match that of competing countries.

"The yield in smallholdings, which contribute 70 percent of our rubber production, is only 200 kilograms (440 pounds) per hectare (2.47 acres) and this is very much less than that of Thailand and Indonesia," Lim said.

"How can this be when we have good rubber clone stocks which can produce up to 3,000 kilograms per hectare," he asked. "It is a pity that much of the technology we have did not filter down to the smallholders and the industry," he said.

Malaysia has fallen behind Thailand and Indonesia in rubber production after reigning as the world's number one natural rubber producer for almost a century until 1988.

Lim said Malaysia had to improve because its competitors were producing quality rubber, entering the same markets and offering lower prices for the commodity.

Malaysia's natural and processed rubber exports, mainly to Europe and the United States, totaled five billion ringgit (two billion dollars) last year. The rubber industry provides employment to 500,000 people locally.