Malaysia’s palm oil industry is expected to maintain its 2021 performance this year. (Photo: malaymail.com) Minister Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin said at a seminar onJanuary 5 that she is optimistic that the industry would be able to achieve itsgoal with palm oil production likely reaching about 20 million tonnes.
Zuraida said last year’s successes and accomplishmentswere accompanied by new challenges. Due to the global shutdown of borders as aresult of the COVID-19 outbreak, obtaining foreign labour has becomedifficult, she said.
Palm oil production was severely impactedsince the plantation worker shortfall, estimated at 75,000, causing harvestingactivities to be delayed and lowering the quality of the fruit bunchesharvested, she added.
The minister said to overcome this problem, thegovernment has agreed to employ 32,000 foreign workers with strict compliancewith the outlined SOP.
She said despite similar obstacles that the industrymight face this year, industrial players are optimistic that they would be ableto meet the production level for this year to cater for the current market likeIndia and China as well as supporting the government’s ambition to penetratenew markets.
Meanwhile, the minister said 2022 would also be a yearfor the ministry to strengthen its promotional efforts for the globalrecognition of the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) as Malaysia’ssustainability standard.
As of November 2021, the total exports of Malaysianpalm oil and its derivatives stood at 22.14 million tonnes and due to high palmoil prices, the total revenue increased by 40 percent to 91.4 billion RM (21.8 billion USD) comparedwith 2020./.
VNA
