Many challenges

Labour shortages

The COVID-19 pandemic had accentuated manpower shortages in the country and Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Plantation and Commodities Fadillah Yusof said labour issues continued to affect plantation operations as people’s movements remained restricted.

Against this backdrop Sime Darby Plantation Berhad group managing director Mohamad Helmy Othman Basha presented a futuristic vision of how palm oil plantations could operate in the future.

“COVID was a watershed moment, with no workers from outside Malaysia,” he said. As a result, the company had been working on the development of advanced technology and robotics in a bid to automate plantation work.

Some of the ideas were still in the concept stage but a harvesting machine was “a work in progress” and would be available in the next two to three years.

If a higher percentage of plantation jobs could be mechanised they would be less laborious and more likely to appeal to the local workforce.

“We want to redesign the plantation and change the prevailing perception that plantation work is a 3Ds – dirty, dangerous and difficult – industry. By the end of 2027 the aim is to employ 100% local workers,” he added.

Slowdown in palm oil production

Although palm oil production was likely to recover this year due to improving labour issues compared to 2022, Thomas Mielke, executive director of ISTA Mielke - Oil World, said that “palm oil has lost its growth dynamics” (see Figure 1, below).

Annual palm oil production growth in major producing countries was likely to slow to 1.9M tonnes or less in the 10 years to 2030 compared to an average