Datuk Carl Bek-Nielsen, the CEO of United Plantations, takes French journalists on a tour of Jenderata Estate, located in Teluk
Intan, Perak.

24/10/2013 (The Star) - MPOC recently hosted French and Belgian journalists on an educational tour. The Star went along for the ride.

Last month, a small group of journalists from France and Belgium visited Malaysia.

The visit came courtesy of the Malaysian Palm Oil Council, which represents the interests of stakeholders from the local palm oil industry. The trip was, in part, a response to a wave of anti-palm oil sentiment, which has been gaining traction since the early 2000s.

The journalists spent their time here meeting farmers, academics, institutions and NGOs in the peninsula and in Sabah, to hear Malaysia’s side of the story. The Star went along for the ride. This is a diary account featuring highlights from the trip.

Day 1

Our journey begins in a wood-panelled chamber, where the Bek-Nielsens are entertaining a bevy of French journalists.

A steady stream of questions and answers are being thrown back and forth, giving the hired translator a run for his money.

It’s been just a few weeks since the French prime minister’s visit to Malaysia, where Jean-Marc Ayrault reiterated assurances that products containing palm oil imported into France would not be taxed.

However, the pulse of anti-palm oil sentiment abroad has prompted the Malaysian Palm Oil Council to reach out in an attempt to ensure both sides of the story are at least heard, if not written about.

United Plantation’s Jenderata Estate, at Teluk Intan in Perak, is our first stop in the council’s five-day tour.

Some of the questions are innocent enough. The journalists are curious about the working conditions of estate workers and ask why labour is dominated by foreign workers. Vice-chairman and chief executive officer of United Plantations Datuk Carl Bek-Nielen responds by saying that ageing farmer populations are a problem the world over.


We check out the palm oil mill at Jenderata Estate, which is run by United Plantations, one of the oldest oil palm players in Malaysia.

As for working conditions, a tour around the estate past neat rows of employee housing (many decorated with a homely array of plants and flower pots), a school, a hospital, places of worship, and even – of all things – a Danish bakery, seem to answer the question.

Granted, United Plantations is one of Malaysia’s oldest, largest and probably best-run plantation companies – however most of the big players run things according to similar standards, he says.

It isn’t long before the discussion moves on to the “hot” topics: deforestation, native customary rights, orangutans – the sort of stuff that make attention-grabbing headlines.

There is no skirting the issue. Any form of agriculture can cause deforestation.

“It would be a lie to say no,” says Bek-Nielsen. “But do not obfuscate palm oil as the main cause of deforestation.”

Around 13.6 million hectares of forest have been cleared per year over the past two decades according to the Food and Agricultural of the United Nations, he points out.

“However, oil palm has been responsible for 14.5 million hectares worth of planting, in the past 150 years.”

Bek-Nielsen’s brother Martin, who is an executive director of the company, also acknowledges there are companies that violate the law. However, such incidents are common elsewhere rather than in Malaysia, he says.

But the real issue isn’t whether palm oil is good or bad, but how to address challenges of how to grow it sustainably.

One journalist brings up the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil standard, a mandatory national scheme soon to be introduced. Why develop a new scheme, when we have the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)?

The topic also leads to more questions about RSPO. If companies are subscribing to the principles of RSPO, shouldn’t there be transparency, why is it that companies often keep buyer information confidential?

The questions seem to strike a nerve. Perhaps these are the questions the Bek-Nielsens have been waiting for.

“First of all, the RSPO is a voluntary scheme,” Martin points out. “A lot of companies have invested millions to be compliant with its certification criteria.”

However, despite assurances that there would be a market for RSPO palm oil, when the scheme was mooted about 10 years ago, the demand for RSPO has simply not materialised. “Initial RSPO premiums per tonne were supposed to be US$40 (RM120) to US$50 (RM150) per tonne.

“Today, however, the premium has dropped to just US$4 (RM12) per tonne.”

As far as the oil palm growers are concerned, a lack of demand for RSPO products by manufacturers and consumers sends a bad message. Why spend millions investing, if no one is going to follow through?

In three to four years, Martin says, all plantations in Malaysia are expected to be capable of supplying segregated oil to the market, for traceability and chain-of-custody purposes.

“However, it all boils down to whether the manufacturers are willing to pay for segregated oil,” says Martin.

“They always say the supply chain is not ready, and that getting it ready could cost millions. But at the end of the day, if it’s sustainable palm oil they are interested in, they will have to bite the bullet.”

Bek-Nielsen adds: “I am all for someone picking up their product and being concerned about whether its ingredients have been sourced sustainably.

“However, non-discriminatory blanket statements coming from the anti-palm oil lobby has a self defeating impact, because it penalises those who are investing in sustainable practices and trying to make the industry better.”