Borneo Post Online (24/05/2026) - IN Part 1, I reflected on Sabah oil palm’s journey from expansion to renewal – from planting up to growing up. But the reset does not stop with young palms.

Oil palm is not merely a crop in rows. It is an ecosystem of pests and pollinators, workers and machines, mills and roads, energy and logistics, smallholders and sustainability. When one part weakens, the whole chain feels it. In plantations, no problem stays politely in its own compartment for long.

Pests, weevils and the humbling of experts

The Maybank plantation report highlights pests and pollination. KLK’s Tawau operations faced mealybugs and sooty mould from 2022, with yields falling to around 16 tonnes per hectare. The mealybugs produced honeydew, encouraging sooty mould that blocked photosynthesis.

In plain terms, the palm was still standing, but its green factory had been partly shut down. There is a humbling lesson here: in plantation life, a small insect can make a large spreadsheet cry.

KLK reportedly spent around RM150 per hectare per treatment, using spraying for young palms and trunk injection for taller palms. After repeated treatment, yields recovered to 20 tonnes per hectare in one estate. KLK also shared solutions with neighbouring estates to prevent reinfestation.

Kudos to KLK – that is the correct spirit. Pests do not respect estate boundaries, company logos, title deeds or corporate pride. When insects travel, they do not apply for inter-estate permits.

The weevil story is equally telling. Aggressive replanting appears to have reduced pollinating weevil populations. Some high-yielding materials may also have higher female sex ratios, boosting yield potential but reducing sufficient male pollen availability.

KLK responded by hatching and releasing weevils, and using assisted pollination. The report notes that hatcheries led to a 15 per cent increase in fruit set and an 18 per cent increase in FFB volume, while assisted pollination boosted first-year harvest yields up to 20 tonnes per hectare, compared with the usual 10 tonnes or less.

Sabah oil palm’s future will not be won by one magic machine or heroic policy speech. It will be won by practical details done well: the right seed, pollinator, pest response, field sanitation, drainage, road, labour system and mill discipline.

Mechanisation: Not magic, but survival

For years, mechanisation in oil palm has been discussed with enthusiasm. Everyone agrees it matters. Everyone applauds the slides. Then the machine reaches the estate, meets Sabah terrain, rain, slope, mud, maintenance gaps, spare-part delays and operator skill – and the applause becomes quieter. Mechanisation is necessary, but it must be honest.

SD Guthrie’s Sabah experience was shaped by foreign labour shortages after Covid-19 border closures, compounded by the US Customs and Border Protection Withhold Release Order issued in December 2020. Following reforms, the WRO was fully lifted in February 2023. The lesson is clear: labour is no longer merely an input. It is an operational risk, reputational risk, market access risk and moral test.

The report notes that SD Guthrie launched a transformation centred on mechanisation, automation and digitalisation, or MAD. Perhaps appropriately, after years of dependence on manual labour, the industry had to go slightly “MAD” to become sane.

The mechanisation observed included loose fruit collection, FFB evacuation, herbicide spraying and fertiliser spraying. These may not be glamorous, but they matter. Loose fruits left behind are small coins scattered on the ground. FFB delays are oil losses wearing muddy boots. Poor spraying efficiency is cost leakage pretending to be routine work.

Mechanisation must begin at replanting, not after it. Field layout, road density, terrace design, collection points, drainage, bridges and turning spaces determine whether machines can work efficiently. Too often, we ask machines to solve problems planted into the field years earlier. A machine without maintenance is an expensive sculpture. A dashboard without field discipline is colourful wallpaper. A drone without follow-up action is a flying tourist.

Mechanisation must reduce drudgery, improve productivity and make plantation work more dignified. Sabah needs not only more machines, but trained talent who understand both palms and engines.

Energy, infrastructure and value beyond crude

The wider Sabah report highlights a serious energy reality. Sabah aims to reach 50 per cent renewable energy installed capacity by 2035, but the grid remains a bottleneck – materially underdeveloped and lagging by about two decades.

Here, palm oil has something important to offer. The plantation report describes KLK Mill-2 in Tawau, upgraded to 60 tonnes per hour in 2024, with a recent oil extraction rate of 23 per cent. It is energy self-sufficient, using empty fruit bunches and palm kernel shells for biomass power, and has a 1.2MWh biogas plant using palm oil mill effluent to trap methane and generate electricity.

Biogas power costs about RM0.33 per kWh, compared with biomass below RM0.50 and diesel generation above RM1. SD Guthrie’s Merotai mill also operates a 24-hour biogas plant, with another planned in Kunak.

A mill is not just where fruit becomes oil. It is a biomass hub, methane-capture point, possible power producer, circular economy node and, in Sabah’s case, a practical answer to fragile grid conditions.

A good mill is like a good orchestra. Sterilisation, threshing, pressing, clarification, kernel recovery, boiler efficiency, effluent treatment and maintenance must all play in time. When one section is out of tune, the music becomes costly. The future mill must not merely extract oil. It must extract value from everything around the oil.

Infrastructure is equally central. For oil palm, it is not background noise; it is a harvesting tool. A plantation may grow excellent fruit, but if roads are poor, the fruit suffers before it reaches the mill. A downstream investor may admire Sabah’s raw material base, but if logistics are weak, the investment may quietly fly elsewhere. In plantations, logistics is yield by another name.

Sabah processes much, but does not yet capture enough value. We produce, mill and ship – but do we sufficiently specialise, brand, integrate, refine and command premium value?

Sabah does not need more white elephants wandering around industrial parks looking for grass. It needs disciplined downstream ambition: biomass, biogas, kernel products, oleochemicals, specialty fats, traceable certified oils, animal feed ingredients, fertiliser recovery, methane reduction, carbon opportunities and bio-based products.

The test is simple: real feedstock, real market, real logistics, real technology, real people and real returns. Anything less is not downstreaming. It is daydreaming.

Sustainability and finding the second wind

The industry must not treat sustainability as an imported scolding. Sabah itself has enough natural heritage to justify higher standards. Oil palm must therefore coexist intelligently with forests, rivers, wildlife, communities and coastline – through higher yields on existing land, better riparian buffers, cleaner mills, stronger methane capture, smallholder inclusion, credible certification and clearer proof.

The age of “trust us” is giving way to the age of “show us”. Sabah oil palm should not resent this. It should be ready.

So what must be done? Make productivity the new expansion. Replant seriously or perish slowly. Treat Ganoderma as a strategic threat, not a field nuisance. Manage pests and pollination as serious business. Mechanise where it truly works. Turn mills into circular economy hubs with real returns. Strengthen roads, ports, bridges and grids. Help smallholders and surrounding growers move forward too.

Sabah oil palm has contributed much. It also has weaknesses. But the reset has begun. Replanting is visible. Labour conditions are improving. Mechanisation is gaining ground. Pest treatment is producing results. Weevil hatcheries and assisted pollination are improving fruit sets. Young palms are moving toward maturity. Biogas and biomass are proving their worth.

Still, a reset is not a miracle. It is a discipline. The old Sabah oil palm grew by spreading its canopy. The next Sabah oil palm must grow by deepening its roots – in productivity, replanting, mechanisation, pest and disease management, sustainability, people, energy, logistics, value creation and trust.

That is the reality check. And perhaps, below the wind, that is how Sabah oil palm finds its second wind.

Read more at https://www.theborneopost.com/2026/05/24/sabah-oil-palms-second-wind-part-2/