29/04/2010 (Bernama), Kudat - The palm oil industry which represents the backbone of Malaysia's commodities market, contributed an export revenue of RM49.6 billion last year, said Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok.

He said more than 150 countries globally utilised Malaysian palm oil due to its advantage and variety of use as a food and non-food product.

"We should be proud that Malaysian palm oil has become the main driver of the global vegetable oil industry.

"With this development, it is expected that Malaysian palm oil will continue to be an important product of the global fat and oil market," he said in his speech while officiating a one-day programme with rubber,palm oil and cocoa smallholders at the SMK Pinawantai, Matunggong, near here Thursday.

Dompok said Sabah's oil palm industry had shown an encouraging improvement over the past few years.

He said last year alone, the area under oil palm in Sabah, increased to 1.36 million hectares compared to 1.33 million in 2008.

"The area under oil palm cultivation in 2009 represented 29 per cent of the country's total," he disclosed.

He said Sabah now had 28,858 oil palm smallholders with an area of 153,444.39 hectares, which is 11.27 per cent of the overall total under palm oil cultivation in the state.

He explained the figure showed the huge contribution of the oil palm sector to the country, especially by smallholders.

He said the government had also allocated RM31.6 million for the High Quality Seedlings Assistance Scheme for smallholders.

The implementation of the scheme he said, is aimed at assisting smallholders who lacked the financial means of obtaining quality oil palm seedlings, supplied by nursery operators recognised by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB).

Dompok said a total of 1,325 oil palm smallholders in the state had benefited from the implementation of the scheme and 75 of them, with an area of 3,451 hectares, were from Kudat Ditrict.

"I hope through the use of this quality planting material, the rate of production of fresh fruit bunches and consequently, the income of smallholders concerned would be enhanced," he said.

On rubber cultivation, he highlighted the ministry was implementing various initiatives for smallholders, to fully benefit from the cultivation of rubber.

He said one of the programmes is the provision of quality planting material for replanting to individual rubber smallholders in Sabah.

Dompok said among others, the programme is aimed at increasing the area under rubber cultivation by using high quality clones.

"To date, the programme has benefited 2,000 rubber smallholders with an area of more than 2,000 hectares.

"Indirectly, the planting of high quality seedlings, will improve the production rate of rubber and income of the smallholders concerned in Sabah," he said.

Meanwhile, Dompok said the cocoa industry contributed RM3.23 billion to the country's revenue last year.

"The contribution came from cocoa seeds and products exported. In Sabah, cocoa has been planted over an area of 7,895 hectares or 38.4 per cent of the the overall total of 20,561 hectares in Malaysia," he said.