05/08/2011 (The Star) - Three public listed plantation firms Sarawak Plantation Bhd, IOI Corp Bhd and Kim Loong Resources Bhd are among four joint-venture companies that have suffered a combined losses of about RM33mil due to thefts of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) in their estates in Sarawak.

Some of the illegal FFBs harvesting were said to be carried out by scheme participants due to their disputes on customary land rights or dividend payout by the companies, according to a briefing for Sarawak Land Development Minister Tan Sri Dr James Masing yesterday.

Sarawak Plantation has reported losses of more than RM21mil due to unauthorised FFB harvesting at its 1,855ha plantation in Suai, Miri. The plantation is owned by SPB Penan Jambatan Suai Sdn Bhd, a joint venture between subsidiary Sarawak Plantation Sdn Bhd, state-owned Land Custody Development Authority (LCDA) and 150 Penan landowners.

IOI's losses have reached RM9.8mil due to stolen FFB at its plantation in Tinjar, Baram, in interior northern Sarawak. The 4,154ha plantation on state land is developed by IOI Pelita Plantation Sdn Bhd, a joint venture with LCDA and 100 individals.

Winsome Pelita Pantu Sdn Bhd, which is 60% owned by of Kim Loong Corp Bhd (wholly-owned by Kim Loong Resources) has suffered about RM300,000 in losses from stolen FFB at its 500ha plantation in Sri Aman Division. The plantation is a joint development with LCDA and 90 native customary rights landowners.

The fourth joint-venture company Palmraya Pelita Meruan Sdn Bhd has lost RM2.33mil in revenue due to the thefts. There were 188 landowners involved in the plantation in Meruan, Sibu

Dr Masing said IOI, Winsome and Palmraya had obtained court injunctions against the illegal harvesters while Sarawak Plantation was in the process of obtaining a similar injunction.

While FFB stealing has stopped in Winsome plantation, illegal FFB harvesting are continuing in the plantations of IOI and Palmraya despite the court injunction.

The claims of native customary rights was cited as the reason for unauthorised FFB harvestings in the IOI plantation while the long waiting time for dividend disbursement and unsatisfied dividend payout were blamed for unauthorised harvesting in Palmraya and Sarawak Plantation estates.

The FFB thefts in Winsome plantation is due to overlapping claim by a third party.

Sarawak Plantation group managing director Datuk Hamden Ahmad told StarBiz recently that because of the disputes, the Penan landownwers (who are scheme participants) had “illegally” harvested the FFB and sold them to another oil palm mill.

Hamden said the company was losing at least RM4mil a year in profit due to its non-harvesting of the FFBs at the Suai plantation.

Dr Masing said the FFB thefts had become a “very serious problem” which had to be stopped to restore investors' confidence, as Sarawak needed more private capital to open up new land for oil palm development.

Sarawak now has nearly one million ha of oil palm estates, and more land, including NCR land, has been identified for development.