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By Shikin Louis
KUCHING, Sept 5: The relocation of Indonesia’s capital to Nusantara, Kalimantan may worsen the ongoing labour shortage in the oil palm plantation sector in Sabah and Sarawak.
Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) director-general Datuk Dr Parveez Ghulam Kadir did not deny that the labour shortage is possible despite the fact that Nusantara would provide many investment opportunities in other sectors within Borneo.
“It is true that that (labour shortage) will be another issue that we will face but let us move forward politically.
“Basically, there is more need for pressing for oil palm industry players here (Sabah and Sarawak) that we need to move even faster in terms of mechanisation and what not,” he said when speaking at a panel discussion for East Malaysia Palm & Lauric Oils Price Outlook Conference & Exhibition 2023 (emPOC2023) at Imperial Hotel here today.
Nevertheless, he revealed that Sabah and Sarawak recorded a cumulative planted area of 3,130,384 hectares for oil palm from January to July 2023, which is a 0.2 per cent increase compared to 3,124,399 hectares for the corresponding period last year.
Sabah and Sarawak also recorded 4,609,776 tonnes in crude palm oil (CPO) production from January to July 2023.
Dr Parveez also said the Borneon regions have four palm oil refineries or Palm Oil Industrial Clusters (POICs) to date, namely POIC Lahad Datu and POIC Sandakan in Sabah, and POIC Tanjung Manis and POIC Bintulu in Sarawak. – DayakDaily
