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Last Updated: 02 April 2024

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KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), in collaboration with IBG Manufacturing Sdn Bhd, has commenced the trial for its latest innovative solution, the iM-bioGuard biofertiliser.

MPOB said in a statement here today that infused with the potent bacteria Pseudomonas, this biocontrol fertiliser combats the fungal pathogen Ganoderma boninense, which is the cause of the Basal Stem Rot (BSR) disease.

Also known as the "cancer" of oil palm, BSR is one of the most severe diseases afflicting oil palm estates in major producing countries, particularly in Malaysia and Indonesia, resulting in enormous economic losses of RM1.5 billion each year, it added.

The MPOB patented technology - iM-bioGuard is the first liquid type of biofertiliser that is designed to cater for easy absorption by the oil palms, making it possible to significantly reduce the damage caused by the Ganoderma disease.

During a recent visit to Machap Estate for its demonstration, Deputy Plantation and Commodities Minister Datuk Chan Foong Hin said the introduction of iM-bioGuard represented a significant milestone in theircollective efforts to mitigate the devastating effects of Ganoderma on the oil palm industry.

"I hope that by starting the first trial with United Malacca Bhd (UMB), it can help to increase crop resilience while promoting environmentally sustainable practices," said Chan. 

On top of that, MPOB and IBG Manufacturing have signed a commercial agreement to introduce the technology to the industry, of which this collaborative endeavour signifies a united front in advancing sustainable practices and safeguarding the future of Malaysia's oil palm industry. – Bernama

https://www.nst.com.my/business/corporate/2024/04/1032869/malaysian-palm-oil-board-starts-trial-biofertiliser

Sumber : New Straits Times

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Last Updated: 02 April 2024

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KUCHING: Rimbunan Sawit Bhd  will undertake a series of short-to-medium term measures to beef up crop production and yield of its loss-making oil palm plantations.

Managing director Tiong Chiong Ie said the group plans to implement a recovery and rehabilitation programme to improve the conditions of these plantations.

Among the measures is the deployment of additional resources, such as machinery, equipment and human resources, to maximise fresh fruit bunch (FFB) crop recovery in the most productive blocks of the oil palm estates.

The group will upgrade, repair and carry out maintenance works on the main and field roads to facilitate accessibility to and from the plantations.

To attract more workers to its plantations, Tiong said Rimbuan Sawit would establish attractive field work piece rates plus incentives, as well as refurbish or renovate the existing workers’ quarters to upgrade their amenities and facilities or construct new workers’ accommodation.

Rimbunan Sawit group owns 16 oil palm estates in Kuching, Sibu and Miri with a total planted area of 42,478ha, representing about 60.76% of the group’s total landbank of 69,909ha.

As at Dec 31, 2022, about 49% or 20,849 ha of the oil palms were in prime mature age cluster (eight to 19 years), 17,794ha or nearly 42% were old mature (over 20 years), 1,259 ha (young mature) and 2,576 ha (immature).

The group also owns and operates three palm oil mills.

Via wholly-owned subsidiaries R.H. Plantations Sdn Bhd and Jayamax Plantation Sdn Bhd, Rimbunan Sawit has entered into sales and purchase agreements with Mahawangsa Sungai Bok Plantation Sdn Bhd (formerly known as Hua Seng Plantation Sdn Bhd) (MSBPSB) to dispose of two loss-making oil palm plantations known as the Selangor Estate and Jayamax Estate in Miri Division, northern Sarawak for a total of RM165mil in cash.

The Selangor Estate covers 4,857ha and Jayamax Estate 5,077.66ha, which also include buildings.

In a circular to shareholders on the proposed disposal of the Selangor Estate and Jayamax Estate, Tiong said besides these two estates, the group has other loss-making oil palm plantations.

However, he did not disclose the number and size.

Rimbunan Sawit shareholders will vote on the proposed disposals at an EGM on April 8.

According to Tiong, the Selangor Estate and Jayamax Estate had been loss-making for three consecutive financial years up to 2022.

This was mainly because of shortage of oil palm harvesters as a result of travel restrictions and border closures imposed by the federal government to curb the spread of Covid-19 pandemic, as well as adverse weather conditions arising from the El Nino phenomenon in 2020.

This, he pointed out, had resulted in low FFB production and yield of the estates.

As both the Selangor Estate and Jayamax Estate are located at the boundary of the group’s oil palm estates in Miri, Tiong said their disposals are expected to cause minimal disruption to the operations of the group’s other oil palm estates within the region.

“Furthermore, given that the Selangor Estate and Jayamax Estate are adjacent to each other, disposing them together would enable MSBPSB to achieve economies of scale by operating the Selangor Estate and Jayamax Estate together,” he added.

The sales of the Selangor Estate and Jayamax Estate would reduce Rimbunan Sawit group ‘s total planted landbank by 17.99% or 7,643 ha.

Rimbunan Sawit group had suffered net losses for five consecutive years to 2022 but the losses had been reduced substantially from RM148.7mil in 2018 (revenue: RM338.7mil) to RM62.8mil (RM284.7mil) in 2019, to RM56.1mil (RM385.5mil) in 2020,to RM6.98mil (RM541.5mil) in 2021 and RM5.8mil (675.9mil) in 2022.

In 2023, the group made a turnaround and returned to the black with profit of RM24.5mil on revenue of RM507.8mil.

Tiong said the proposed disposals of the Selangor Estate and Jayamax Estate represents an opportunity for the group to unlock the value at a premium to their respective market value.

The group is expected to record a pro forma gain on disposal of about RM77.94mil.

From the proceeds of the sales, he said the money would be utilised for partial repayment of the group’s interest-bearing borrowings of about RM86.11mil.

This is expected to result in an interest cost savings of about RM3.99mil per annum and lower the group’s gearing level to 0.61 times from 0.99 times.

“In addition, part of the proceeds of the proposed disposals will be channelled towards the group’s business operations, as it will be utilised to fund new planting and replanting of oil palms. In that regard, the group will be able to conserve its internally generated funds to strengthen its financial position.”Going forward, Tiong said the group will seek opportunities to replenish and expand its plantation assets.

“The group takes cognisance that the foreign worker availability in Malaysia is gradually improving and expects healthy soil moisture conditions and lower-flooding disruptions to support output of its palm oil products, which bodes well for the performance of its oil palm estates in the longer term.

“Furthermore, with expectations of firmer palm oil prices and greater demand of palm oil products from the market, coupled with the group’s continuous efforts to optimise its operations and costs to drive greater efficiency and productivity, the group is cautiously optimistic on the outlook of the oil palm plantation segment as well as the financial performance of the group,” he added.

https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2024/04/01/rimbunan-sawit-to-beef-up-crop-production-and-yield

Sumber : The Star

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Last Updated: 21 March 2024

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KUALA LUMPUR: The oil palm industry is facing problems or being affected after the government froze the hiring quota of foreign workers due to the surplus of foreign workers which actually applies for the manufacturing and service sectors.

Plantation and Commodities Minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani said the oil palm industry still depends about 75 per cent on foreign workers.

"For example, every eight hectares of oil palm is managed by one worker. So if there are 1,000 hectares, about 125 workers are required and of that number, 75 per cent are foreign workers.

"He said the oil palm industry lacks almost 40,000 workers, mostly focused on the harvesting segment.

"Recently the government has frozen the quota of foreign workers because there is a surplus of foreign workers in the country. But the surplus is in fields other than plantations.

"For example, currently in the manufacturing sector we have an excess of 165,497 foreign workers, while in the service sector, we have an excess of 27,158 foreign workers. This excess of foreign workers occurred after we reopened businesses and the economy post Covid-19 whereby any company that applied for foreign workers would get approval from the ministry.

"There was a lack of coordination. Businesses take time to grow after we closed for two years, and that's what causing the excess foreign workers," he said during the question and answer session at Dewan Negara today in reply to a question from Senator Datuk Seri Zurainah Musa who asked about the efforts made to resolve the needs of about 40,000 foreign workers in the oil palm plantation sector.

Johari said  since the companies involved in the plantation sector were facing a shortage of foreign workers, a 'recalibration' was made with the excess of unemployed foreign workers offered work in the plantation sector.

"However, the plantation industry is afraid to hire (excess foreign workers) because if some of them were hired against their will, it will cause them to be deemed as forced labour," he said.

He said the ministry is currently implementing a 'pilot test' by hiring 60 young local workers to change the perception of working in the plantation.

"Mainly, we want them (local young workers) to specialise in harvesting. Harvesters are very important because if we have 100 workers in the plantation, 50 per cent are harvesters.

"So we want to train our youths via the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programme. We will train them to harvest oil palm trees and call them specialist harvesters and hopefully they can earn a salary of up to RM3,000.

"I mention this because only Malaysia has such a labour problem. In Indonesia, 100 per cent of its production is local. They have harvesters who have specialised skills and some of them came here and they are the ones who harvest," he said.

Johari said the country's oil palm industry suffered losses of RM20 billion to RM30 billion following the labour shortage issue.— BERNAMA

https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2024/03/1027945/oil-palm-industry-affected-after-freezing-foreign-worker-recruitment

Sumber : New Straits Times

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Last Updated: 21 March 2024

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KUALA LUMPUR, March 19 ― Crude palm oil (CPO) prices are anticipated to pull back to the RM3,800 to RM4,000 per tonne trading range in April 2024 from the current level of RM4,250 per tonne, said the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC).

 This is due to the ample supply of soya beans from South America entering the global market from April onwards, as well as the gradual seasonal recovery of palm oil production in Malaysia, it said.

"As the low season for palm oil production concludes in March, palm oil prices may begin to reflect the recovery in production and inventory levels in April and May, potentially capping palm oil prices.

"Additionally, the price premium of palm oil over soft oils continued to widen in March and have surpassed the prices of three major soft oils concurrently since February in the European market,” it said in a statement today.

According to MPOC, CPO prices are trading at a premium of US$40 (RM189.17) to US$95 per tonne above soft oils in March 2024, therefore, a recovery in soft oil prices is anticipated in April 2024 to narrow the price spread.

"CPO prices surged to their highest level in 12 months on March 15, 2024, nearly 10 per cent above the February 2023 closing price.

"The strong price trends observed in the first quarter of 2024 are predominantly shaped by the dynamics of deficit supply growth,” it said.

Moving forward in 2024, MPOC said the global palm oil production is projected to rise minimally by 0.11 per cent, whereas production growth for soya bean oil is expected to increase by 2.88 per cent, rapeseed oil to grow by 3.48 per cent, and sunflower oil to expand by 3.94 per cent.

In terms of inventory, it said Malaysian palm oil stocks continued their downward trend in February 2024, dropping by five per cent to 1.919 million tonnes, marking the lowest level of stock registered since July 2023.

"The reduction in palm oil inventory in February was primarily driven by reduced imports and robust domestic consumption,” it said.

MPOC said it is unlikely that Malaysia's palm oil stocks will experience any growth in March due to robust domestic consumption, particularly during the Ramadan month, while production is not expected to increase until April and beyond. ― Bernama

https://www.malaymail.com/amp/news/money/2024/03/19/malaysian-palm-oil-council-cpo-prices-set-to-pull-back-to-rm3800-rm4000-per-tonne-in-april/124253

Sumber : Malay Mail