KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Rubber Fund Board (SRFB) has been accused of colluding with ‘middlemen’ to exploit rubber smallholders in the state.
Exposing the ‘covert operation’, Sabah DAP secretary Edwin Bosi said SRFB was creating a situation for middlemen to exploit smallholders by issuing payment receipts instead of on-the-spot cash when purchasing latex and rubber sheets.
He said this practice encouraged middlemen to go directly to the smallholders and buy the rubber for lower prices as the smallholders need the money immediately.
“During the interim period rubber smallholders sell at a lower price because they do not have any cash in hand.
“They can’t resist the temptation of cash payment and normally agree to sell their rubber to the middlemen even though the price is much lower than what is offered by SRFB,” he said.
He claimed that “SRFB is working with middlemen” to squeeze as much as they could from these people.
“We therefore urge the government to quickly rectify this problem by providing not only adequate but ready funds to help the rubber tappers,” he said adding that rubber smallholders in Sabah were predominatly non-Muslim natives.
Bosi backed up his claim by citing a recent case where a rubber smallholder from Penampang was paid RM7.50/kg for a rubber sheet by the middleman who then sold them to SRFB for RM9.40/kg.
“On top of this SRFB pays the middleman incentives of RM0.15/kg for transportation and RM0.35/kg for other services.
“All in all, the middleman has made a nice profit of RM2.40/kg,” he said.
Bosi showed the receipts of sale which he said was given to him by the rubber smallholder, to substantiate his claims.
He warned that the poverty eradication programme by state government is bound to fail if government agencies could not even pay rural farmers.
According to sources the state government, despite insisting that it is in the black, is insolvent. - FMT
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