PETALING JAYA: Terrain limitation is a major factor which requires physical labour even though the plantation industry is trying hard to incorporate automation.
Incorporated Society of Planters chief executive Rajendran Irusan said: “Even though there are fertiliser spreaders, mechanisation and harvesting machines, the landscape in Malaysia, which is hilly and uneven, poses a hindrance.
“Unless we have a flat landscape like in Europe, the machines cannot harvest the oil palm. That’s why we still need labourers.
“We have drones to scope the plantations and identify if there are diseases but we still have to train people to use them.
“We are incurring quite a substantial amount of losses because we cannot harvest and the fruits are rotting.”
Despite the high prices of crude palm oil (CPO), stakeholders are unable to capitalise on the commodity due to an all-time low production.
“The locals are still reluctant to work even with incentives and attractions like housing or allowances. They still deem the job as 3D (dirty, dangerous and demeaning),” Rajendran said.
In October last year, the Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry approved 32,000 vaccinated foreign plantation workers to be brought into Malaysia in stages starting mid-October.Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin said they were to become harvesters as most locals were not ready to carry out the task.
According to Rajendran, Indonesians are not too keen to work in Malaysia as their own country offers better job prospects coupled with yearly wage increments.
Meanwhile, the Sarawak Oil Palm Plantation Owners Association (Soppoa) said there was no indication that the foreign labour shortage problem would be resolved soon.
Its chief executive officer Felix Moh Mee Ho said, in a statement yesterday, that there were many signs that the Indonesian government would continue to restrict its citizens from seeking employment in Malaysia.
“Like all sectors, Soppoa remains unclear on the prospects in terms of the availability of foreign workers,” he said in the statement.
He said the palm oil industry in the state faced a shortage of 45,000 foreign workers last year and the figure had since increased.
“The Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry and the Human Resources Ministry have agreed to bring in 32,000 foreigners to Peninsular Malaysia,” he said.
“However, it was regrettable to note that the Sarawak palm oil industry was once again not part of the equation.”
Soppoa also hoped that the state government would resolve the foreign worker shortage issue by negotiating directly with its Indonesian counterpart to resume sending its citizens to Sarawak.
“We also urge the government to expedite the consideration to approve other source countries for foreign workers in the plantation sector,” he added.
Although Sarawak is the largest state with oil palm planted areas, its palm oil industry suffered a loss of about RM2bil in revenue last year as a result of manpower shortage.
Sarawak only allows foreign workers to be sourced from Indonesia for its oil palm plantations.
The association also called on the state to outsource foreign workers from other countries for the industry.
National Association of Human Resources Malaysia president Zarina Ismail agreed that the uneven landscape of the country had necessitated manual labour.
However, she said there were also places that could use technology, as such both manual and automation should run simultaneously.
“The plantation sector is a priority because it is a contributor to the gross national product,” she said.
Malaysian Palm Oil Association chief executive officer Datuk Nageeb Wahab said the prolonged labour shortage issue had remained unresolved.
The labour crunch, especially for fruit harvesters in oil palm estates, is currently still critical, according to Nageeb.
Many plantation companies have been waiting in vain for the arrival of foreign workers since late last year.
The Star has also reached out to the Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry for updates on the new batch of workers.