S’wak oil palm smallholders see red over low FFB prices at collection centres
02/12/2022 (The Borneo Post), Miri - Oil palm smallholders demand answers from the authorities on whether there was profiteering in abnormally big price differences for fresh fruit bunches (FFB) last month, said Sarawak Dayak Oil Palm Planters Association (Doppa) in a statement.
Its president Napoleon Royal Ningkos said differences between collection centres and mills were as high as RM100 per tonne for FFB in November while the price of crude palm oil (CPO) published by Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) for November 2022 averaged over RM4,000 per tonne in the same range as prices in July and August 2022.
“In fact, the daily CPO prices in November were very stable and only during four days of the 16 trading days did they dip below RM4,000 per tonne.
“Smallholders are perplexed as to why many mills and collection centres reduced their buying price to about RM620-RM660 while in July and August 2022 the prices were about RM100 higher. Have many of the mills just dropped their oil extraction ability by one to 1.5 percent?” he asked.
This was among the issues brought up at Doppa’s first exco meeting chaired by Napoleon, who was elected as president for the 2022–2024 term.
All oil palm smallholders in the state sell their harvested fruits to collection centres, popularly called ‘ramp’, or directly to the mills and most had noticed and complained to the association of the exceptionally low price last month.
Doppa called upon MPOB to monitor all mills to ensure compliance with the formulated pricing calculation and appealed to all certification bodies (CB) auditors of all sustainability certifications to ensure that all mills provide fair and transparent pricing.
“Transparency includes how the price is calculated and not merely displaying the price at the weighbridge,” the statement added.
The association is also looking forward to MPOB reviewing and making policy changes on incentives and benefits for smallholders planting on NCR lands as former deputy minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Datuk Willie had promised in Miri that all smallholders in Sarawak shall be treated equally once they are licensed by MPOB.
Many federal policies failed to recognise that the State Land Law is different from that in Malaya and Sabah, putting smallholders in Sarawak at a disadvantage as most of them are NCR land owners and do not possess land titles which are a prerequisite for such applications.
‘No Deforestation, No Peat, and No Exploitation’, commonly known as NDPE, the policy on deforestation and peat is also against the way of life of NCR farmers in the state.
The association called on the authorities to address these shortcomings and take a pragmatic approach to ensure that smallholders in Sarawak are not discriminated against by federal policies.
“This policy shortcoming probably arises due to a lack of representation by Sarawak smallholders in palm oil boards such as MPOB, MPOC (Malaysian Palm Oil Council) and MPOCC (Malaysian Palm Oil Certification Council),” said Napoleon.