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Kuala Lumpur: The plantation and commodities ministry has urged the Malaysian Rubber Board to formulate a consolidation programme to develop abandoned rubber plantations and smallholdings in order to reduce the nation’s dependency on rubber imports.

Minister Datuk Seri Johari Ghani said, to date, the ministry had identified around 420,000ha of abandoned rubber plantations and smallholdings nationwide, with a production potential of more than 550,000 tonnes of rubber annually.

“We have identified all these abandoned rubber plantations. However, there are two problems – the smallholders do not want to give up their plantations, and the plantations are overgrown with weeds and bushes. If we can produce 800,000 to one million tonnes of rubber, we can reduce (the dependence on) imported natural rubber, and, indirectly, the outflow of money abroad," he told reporters here.

In 2022, Malaysia produced 377,000 tonnes of rubber, down from 1.3 million tonnes in 2006.

Johari also highlighted that if the programme was successfully implemented, the country could reduce its dependency on natural rubber imports by 50% over the next 10 to 15 years.

"We imported about RM6 billion worth of natural rubber last year, and maybe (if the consolidation programme is successful), we can reduce it by 50% or even further," he said.