Sabah’s rubber price worth a kilo of salt

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Masiung

TONGOD (Jan 24): Rubber farmers in this country will continue to be burdened with poverty if there is no effort to stabilise the price of the commodity in the local market.

Kuamut assemblyman Datuk Masiung Banah said small rubber farmers are now not only burdened with the increase in the price of weedkiller to more than 100 per cent, even worse, the price of rubber vinegar and fertilizer has increased by 90 per cent.

“The fall in the value of this particular commodity is the lowest decline in the country’s history over the past 20 years.

“The rubber market now remains at a floor price of RM2.50 per kilo. It is worth the price of a kilo of salt and it has never been reviewed for the past eight years,” he said after visiting the Tongod new township commercial project site on Monday.

Masiung added as the people representative in the state legislative he sympathised with the group of small rubber farmers, especially in Sabah, who are increasingly stuck with the increasing cost of living.

The chairman of the Housing & Urban Development Board (LPPB) said that rubber tappers were also affected by the unpredictable weather changes and the reduction in the price of rubber was becoming more significant.

According to him, several past governments, through the Ministry of Plantation and Commodity Enterprises never checked the value of the commodity causing the price to continue to fluctuate until today.

He hopes that the ministry and the Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority (RISDA) will find a solution so that the rubber market can reach to RM3.50 to RM4.00 per kilo to help rubber farmers in this country.

Masiung hoped that the Unity Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Datuk Sri Anwar Ibrahim would understand the struggle of the rubber planters.

He urged the ministry to be concerned about the price of the commodity which is getting worse especially rubber is the country’s sixth largest export.