Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas

13/05/2014 (The Star) - Measures under the palm oil and rubber National Key Economic Area target to increase up-stream productivity and downstream activities, says Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas (pic).

He said the palm oil industry was at a very advanced stage in Malaysia, providing direct employment to nearly one million people, spearheading research and development into the consumer and health sectors, generating new innovations for harvesting fresh fruit bunches.

“Most importantly, it supplies cargoes to the world’s top two food importers, India and China,” he said in the newly-released Economic Transformation Programme annual report for 2013.

The report said the challenges faced by the Government in delivering this year’s key performance indicator target included uncertainty in oil palm prices, limited interest by independent smallholders to replant as well as land ownership and suitability issues in Sarawak.

However, it said the palm oil industry was able to withstand a year of volatile market conditions in 2013 due to increased replanting of oil palm by smallholders, the adoption of the CantasTM harvesting tool by major plantations and the improvement of yields.

Working towards generating RM178bil in gross national income by 2020, the report said the Govern-ment was implementing eight entry point projects which included the replanting of oil palm, improving fresh fruit brunch yield, oil extraction rate as well as worker productivity, developing biogas facilities and expediting growth in the food and health-based segment.