BEAUFORT: The Sabah Rubber Industry Board (LIGS) has ventured into latex pillow manufacturing as part of efforts to add value to Sabah-produced latex and improve returns for more than 120,000 rubber smallholders across the state.
State Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Industry Minister Datuk Jamawi Jaafar said the initiative marks a shift from Sabah's traditional practice of exporting raw latex to Peninsular Malaysia, particularly Johor, for processing.
He said LIGS had upgraded an existing facility in Beaufort into a processing plant that manufactures pillows made entirely from Sabah latex.
"The objective is to create added value from the latex produced in Sabah. Instead of exporting it directly, we can process it locally and increase its market value, which will ultimately benefit rubber smallholders through better prices," he told reporters after visiting the LIGS latex pillow processing plant here today.
The factory began production on May 29 and has been operating for the past two weeks.
Jamawi said the facility currently has the capacity to produce up to 400 latex pillows a day on a single eight-hour shift, with room for expansion should market demand increase.
He said the locally produced pillows are expected to compete with imported latex pillows, which are currently sold at between RM399 and RM400 per unit.
"We want to offer consumers a quality product at a more affordable price while ensuring there are returns for our smallholders," he said.
Jamawi added that the downstream initiative would open new opportunities for Sabah's rubber industry and contribute to higher incomes for rural rubber growers.
Sabah has about 500,000 acres of rubber plantations cultivated by more than 120,000 smallholders, with Tenom recording the largest planted area in the state.
He added that the ministry is considering a second phase of downstream rubber industry development in Tenom within the next few years, subject to the success of the Beaufort project.
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