02/05/2012 (The Star) -  The oil palm industry especially in Sarawak and Sabah is facing acute shortage of labour resulting in 15% loss in rotting fruits.

Chief executive of the Incorporated Society of Planters, Azizan Abdullah, told The Star that the plantations were in dire need of harvesters.

Sarawak which relied heavily on Indonesian workers was feeling the pressure as more and more oil palm plantations were developed in Indonesia.

These new plantations were drawing more Indonesians to return home, he said. Sabah, on the other hand, depends on workers from the Philippines.

As for plantations in the peninsula, he said though they also had labour shortage, the intensity was not so serious as they did not depend entirely on one country for their workers but on a host of nationalities which include Bangladeshis, Myammarese and Sri Lankans.

 
Vital workforce: A plantation worker harvesting oil palm fruits.

Plantations in Indonesia are reportedly offering wages, which are as good as what they could get in Malaysia.

“This is a pull factor for Indonesian workers in the state.

“In addition they can also be close to their families, and the wife can also work in the plantations,” he said.

“However, the minimum wage that will be announced by the Prime Minister during Workers Day celebration would encourage foreigners to continue working in our plantations.”

Azizan said plantations now could afford to pay harvesters up to RM1,500 a month due to the good price of crude palm oil (CPO) at RM3,400 per metric ton.

The other major problem confronting the industry was the structure of export and sale taxes.

The problem came about due to oil palm millers in Indonesia offering cheaper tax of US$100 per ton, which is lower than those in Malaysia.

“RM150 per ton is a lot of money. This has put a lot of pressure on the refinery people in Malaysia.

“They are now adopting a wait-and-see attitude to see what the Government will do to lower the taxes,” he said.

He said about five million hectares of land were under oil palm plantations with Sarawak commanding 1.02 million ha, and Sabah at 1.2 million ha.

“There’s no more land left in the peninsula for the crop but Sarawak can still plant one million more hectares,” he said.

To achieve this, he said the state government needed to address the NCR land issue first.

Last year, industry’s earning from oil palm products was RM80bil.