KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 420,878 rubber smallholders and tappers have been registered and issued with Rubber Transaction Authority Permit (PAT-G).
Plantation Industries and Commodities deputy minister Datuk Datu Nasrun Datu Mansur said of the total, 282,643 were registered in Pninsular Malaysia, 56,121 were registered in Sabah and 82,114 were registered in Sarawak.
“The government is always attentive and sensitive to the problems faced by rubber smallholders and rubber tappers, especially with the unstable rubber market prices,” he said during a question and answer session in Dewan Negara.
Datu Nasrun was responding to a question from Senator Datuk Dr Ananthan Somasundaram who had asked him to state the number of rubber smallholders and rubber tappers in Malaysia.
PAT-G should be used by smallholders when conducting their own rubber sales transaction to a licensed buyer registered with the Malaysian Rubber Board.
It would be an offence for any smallholders to sell rubber without having PAT-G.