Malaysia plans to increase rubber production by 2012 to 1.8 tonnes per hectare a year from 1.4 tonnes per hectare a year currently, Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said today.

He said the ministry was currently working on better clones to boost yield, monitoring rubber tappers and smallholders to be better organised and looking at issues that need clarifications.

"With the limited acreage, we want to see whether we can boost production capacity so that the 1.24 million hectares of planted land can produce more than what it is at the moment," he told reporters after visiting the Rubber Research Institute of Malaysia.

Malaysia is the world's third largest rubber producer after Thailand and Indonesia.

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Dompok said there was no plan to set a floor price for rubber.

"We are now working with Indonesia and Thailand on a price stabilisation scheme," he added.

-- BERNAMA

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Source:http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsbusiness.php?id=404104