MARKET DEVELOPMENT
Take the Lead to Innovate, MPOB Told
Take the Lead to Innovate, MPOB Told
20/05/2015 (Borneo Post) - The Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) must lead the way for greater mechanisation in the oil palm industry to harvest fresh fruit bunches (FFBs) to reduce dependency on foreign workers, said Land Development Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Jemut Masing.
He said it was about time the nation’s top minds in the industry got together to address the pertinent issue of lack of harvesters.
“MPOB must lead the way and together with major players, put their best minds together and come up with the best solution through mechanisation. This way, we don’t have to depend too much on foreign workers who are getting very difficult to source.
“If the timber industry could do that 30 years ago by using tractors, I’m sure the oil palm industry players could do the same thing by deciding how best to use mechanical harvesting for FFBs,” Masing told The Borneo Post at his residence here yesterday.
He said for Sarawak alone, the industry was losing about RM1 billion annually due to the lack of harvesters.
According to Masing, last year, Malaysia earned some RM92 billion from the industry which was considered increasingly crucial to ensuring that the country reach developed status by 2020.
On a related issue, Masing said the oil palm industry was the best one to address the disparity between the rich and the poor in Sarawak, and hoped that big players such as Wilmar International and Cargill Group would walk the talk and participate in Sarawak’s oil palm industry.
“We are hoping the big players such as Wilmar International and Cargill Group will not put restrictions on Sarawak. Their restriction is that there should be no deforestation. And that’s our approach now as mentioned by Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem, that we should stop giving state land for oil palm plantations. So we will only develop native customary rights land (NCR) land which consists of secondary forests,” he pointed out.
Masing stressed that Sarawak will not bow down to pressure from some Western countries who had actually depleted their forests a long time ago.
“They say don’t cut any more trees. But how can we expand our industry if we can’t even cut our secondary forests on NCR land to expand our oil palm plantations,” he said.
They just know how to talk. Cakap tak serupa bikin (they don’t practice what they preach),” he reiterated.
He said it was about time the nation’s top minds in the industry got together to address the pertinent issue of lack of harvesters.
“MPOB must lead the way and together with major players, put their best minds together and come up with the best solution through mechanisation. This way, we don’t have to depend too much on foreign workers who are getting very difficult to source.
“If the timber industry could do that 30 years ago by using tractors, I’m sure the oil palm industry players could do the same thing by deciding how best to use mechanical harvesting for FFBs,” Masing told The Borneo Post at his residence here yesterday.
He said for Sarawak alone, the industry was losing about RM1 billion annually due to the lack of harvesters.
According to Masing, last year, Malaysia earned some RM92 billion from the industry which was considered increasingly crucial to ensuring that the country reach developed status by 2020.
On a related issue, Masing said the oil palm industry was the best one to address the disparity between the rich and the poor in Sarawak, and hoped that big players such as Wilmar International and Cargill Group would walk the talk and participate in Sarawak’s oil palm industry.
“We are hoping the big players such as Wilmar International and Cargill Group will not put restrictions on Sarawak. Their restriction is that there should be no deforestation. And that’s our approach now as mentioned by Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem, that we should stop giving state land for oil palm plantations. So we will only develop native customary rights land (NCR) land which consists of secondary forests,” he pointed out.
Masing stressed that Sarawak will not bow down to pressure from some Western countries who had actually depleted their forests a long time ago.
“They say don’t cut any more trees. But how can we expand our industry if we can’t even cut our secondary forests on NCR land to expand our oil palm plantations,” he said.
They just know how to talk. Cakap tak serupa bikin (they don’t practice what they preach),” he reiterated.