KOCHI: Malaysia's natural rubber production could jump 22 percent in 2015 to 800,000 tonnes as higher prices and government incentives for production prompt farmers to increase tapping, the head of the Malaysian Rubber Board said on Thursday.
A rise in production could keep a lid on global prices , which have risen by more than a quarter since hitting their lowest level in more than five years last September.
"We are hoping smallholders will return to production as the government is giving them an incentive," Salmiah Ahmad, director general of the Malaysian Rubber Board, told Reuters on the sidelines of India Rubber Meet, an industry conference.
"Farmers are very sensitive to prices. If prices go up, they will start production."
The country's output fell by more than a fifth in 2014 to 655,000 tonnes.
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