The matter, he said, is very important for both the State and Federal governments to consider.

While the price of non-smoked rubber sheets in Sabah has somewhat increased a little recently, he said most rubber smallholders in the State would like the "free market play" system practised in Sarawak and the peninsula to be applied here.

"I have not (really) seen progress (of the request by the smallholders association in Sabah to streamline the price of rubber sheets) since the press asked me previously.

"But I have been informed that the price of non-smoked sheets in Sabah has increased a little," he said in a press conference after officiating at the SM St Michael Hevea Science Park, here, Monday.

According to him, local rubber tappers in Sabah are paid RM4.15 per kilogramme of unsmoked sheets and RM7.815 for SMR20 dry rubber sheets by the Sabah Rubber Industry Board (LIGS).

However, he said almost all rubber smallholder here sell to the LIGS unsmoked sheets and that there was a certain amount of deduction for the rubber they were selling.

Personally, he said the deduction is a bit too much.

Nevertheless, he said rubber is gaining its importance with growing demand for natural rubber worldwide.

In Sabah, he said the total acreage for rubber is 67,890 hectares and managed by 20,325 smallholders.

Last year, he said Sabah produced 63,000 tonnes of rubber with a value of RM427 million compared to 62,000 tonnes in 2007 valued at RM388m.

The statistics, he said, showed Sabah is a significant contributor to the progress of the nation's rubber industry.

Looking at the greater need for natural rubber, Dompok said one of the few bright sparks in the commodities sector is rubber glove.

"Last year, the commodities under my ministry recorded export earnings of RM112 billion," he said.

For the first half of this year, he said they saw a drop in all the commodities by about 25 per cent compared to the corresponding period last year.

But as far as rubber gloves is concerned, there has been an increase of 7.3 per cent for the first six months this year compared to the same period last year.

"So, it is a industry that is growing because the world needs natural rubber," he said.

The furniture industry also acquires a lot of rubber wood because furniture made of rubber wood practically face little problem going into the European and US markets since it is a plantation crop.

"There's no one coming up to say that we are cutting down forest because rubber trees are known as a crop that is grown by plantations or smallholders.

"Therefore, no environmentalists will say anything about furniture made of rubber trees," he said.

Dompok said in Sabah rural areas, the rubber trees are considered the "ATM" for the tappers and have become the "Tree of Life" for a majority of people who depend on rubber for their income.

This is because, whenever the rubber tappers run out money, all they need to do is to sell off their rubber sheets.

"In those days, the tappers smoked their rubber sheets and at the end of the month they will sell them," he said.

He said until today rubber has been a crop that has helped a lot of families.

The latest price for rubber as of Friday was RM7,815 per tonne or RM7.81 per kg for SMR20.

Dompok said the rubber industry in terms of acreage over the years has been a victim of the oil palm industry in some ways because when the price of palm oil went up, a lot of people switched to oil palm.

But it is increasing now, he said, because the Federal Government has a policy of encouraging the development of forest plantations.

The Government, he said, is allocating RM1 billion for loans to be taken up by plantation companies interested to plant timber.

He said rubber is one of the crops that the Government is encouraging to grow because the furniture industry requires a lot of rubber wood.

"In fact, almost 80 per cent of our furniture components made of timber come from rubber trees or better known as hevea brasiliensis wood," he said.

In this respect, he is happy to see St Michael's students initiating such activity.

He said once the rubber seedlings are ready, they could either sell them to companies who are planting rubber or sell to the Malaysian Rubber Board (LGM) to pass it on to rubber smallholders.