Job of last resort puts further strain on Malaysia's palm sector

Free Malaysia Today

09-06-2025

Skilled harvesters use hand-held sickles attached to long poles to cut down fruit from trees that can weigh as much as 25kg.
KUALA LUMPUR : Malaysia's palm oil industry is grappling with a dwindling labour pool as workers increasingly shun physically demanding jobs at plantations, a trend that threatens to exacerbate production woes in the major grower.
The sector has become the 'last choice' for foreign labourers – the backbone of the industry – and locals, who view the work as dirty, dangerous and difficult, said Roslin Azmy Hassan, the head of the Malaysian Palm Oil Association, an industry group.
'Many are choosing jobs in urban areas,' he added.
'It's a Herculean task faced by all the plantation companies,' Roslin said in an interview in Kuala Lumpur, referring to difficulties attracting labour.
'We have been pushing hard for mechanisation, but the key work is harvesting.
'There's no machine that's able to achieve the productivity of a human being,' he added.
Labour issues, along with low productivity from old trees and crop disease, are crimping output growth in the world's second-biggest grower.
Roslin estimates that these factors are leading to revenue losses of as much as RM11 billion (US$2.6 billion) each year for the Malaysian palm oil industry.
Palm is the world's most widely used vegetable oil and can be found in products from chocolate to cosmetics and biofuel, but the broader sector continues to be plagued by production issues.
Top grower Indonesia has even turned to tiny bugs from Africa in an effort to boost output.
Roslin said replanting costs have surged in recent years, discouraging smaller Malaysian operators from replenishing their palm plantations, while a fungus that causes stem rot has doubled its spread since 2017 to around 14% of the nation's planted area.
He expects output will climb to 19.7 million tonnes this year, slightly higher than 2024, but still below pre-pandemic levels.
Malaysia's plantations suffered their worst-ever labour shortage during the pandemic as border curbs halted the flow of people from countries including Indonesia and Bangladesh, crimping production.
Since then, the sector has struggled to boost its foreign workforce to pre-Covid levels.
The industry is trialling the use of robots to mechanise some parts of estate operations, but collecting palm bunches is still very much a manual job.
Skilled harvesters use hand-held sickles attached to long poles to cut down fruit from trees that can weigh as much as 25kg.
'I don't know how long it's going to last, but things are getting more and more difficult,' said Roslin, referring to labour issues.
'It's a big struggle not only to entice workers, but also to keep them,' he added.