Not another headache, please  

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A machine with the power and strength of a human is far off for Sarawak’s terrain.

THE oil palm producers in Sarawak are scratching their heads on how to look for the harvesters of the fresh fruit bunches. And now the news about the intention of the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) to impose a cess of RM5 on every tonne of palm oil and kernel in addition to the existing RM14 in three weeks’ time, has produced another headache. With a chronic labour shortage and the coronavirus-related impact on the economy, everyone’s problem is being compounded.

Where’s the logic?

Please spare a thought for the millers, refiners, and the thousands of primary producers, including some 36,000 smallholders in Sarawak. They are the goose that lays the golden eggs; this new cess could strangle the poor fowl!

According to the MPOB, the rationale for the imposition of the additional cess is that “there is the dire need for research and development on palm oil mechanisation and automation in Malaysia to ensure the sector’s sustainability and survival”. Nobody quarrels with the importance of R&D in general, but to put an extra burden on palm oil producers at this point in time, even though for a year only, is not being reasonable.

Judging by the statement made by the Sarawak Oil Palm Plantation Owners’ Association (Soppoa), it is obvious that there is no need to spend such a huge sum of money during a lean time. The Borneo Post of Nov 27 quoted Andrew Cheng, chief executive officer of the Soppoa as saying, “MPOB was trying to raise more than RM100 million per annum from the plantation sector with the cess, which the association would not support … in actual fact, the board already has the funds.”

The money is meant to fund research on producing machines that can replace human power in harvesting the palm fruit bunches. Supposing those machines can be produced soon, and assuming that the producers can afford to pay the cess, what guarantee is there that the cess may not be disguised as reduced purchase price for the fresh fruit bunches, produced and sold by the smallholders to the mill?

Why don’t we use that amount of money to increase the wages of harvesters, locally recruited, as many as possible? They will work if the wages are right.

Compare the need for research on harvesting machines with the urgent necessity for more human palm fruit harvesters!

As the MPOB is not in dire short of funds for the purpose of R&D now, the rationale for the additional cess is, at best, curious. It is unconscionable to add to the burden of the producers, in the circumstances we are in, and will probably be in for the next few years.

Many smallholders in Kapit have been complaining about having to pay RM50 for every tonne of FFB if they sell through the middlemen. Does anybody care? If the proposal to impose the extra cess is accepted and gazetted as a regulation, are the producers prepared for the penalty of RM1,000 or for a period in prison for non-compliance of the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (Cess) Order 2020?

Too late for feedback

According to the statement of the MPOB (The Borneo Post, Nov 26) anybody interested or involved in the business of producing palm oil would have the chance to provide input or feedback to the board.

Surely it’s too late for the producers of crude palm oil to provide meaningful input by the end of this month when the proposals are ready for approval by the appropriate authorities. The producers are busy making financial arrangements to pay the cess not later than the last day or each month – end of January, 2021. Tough for a small producer of CPO in Sarawak! Believe you me.

Granted that they may be allowed to air their views, there is no guarantee that any contrary views or more reasonable proposals will be adopted at this late hour. The whole exercise of calling for feedback from members of the public looks like an afterthought. Something like ‘don’t blame the board for not having held prior consultation with the stakeholders, they have agreed with the board with regard to the wording of the order.’ Well, they didn’t disagree, because they had no time to study it. Smallholders spend their time on the farm, not on the laptop zoom-conferencing with their fellow-farmers (provided they have internet access).

Cess exemption for Sabah and Sarawak 

I don’t know if any producer in Sarawak or Sabah has the time and the means to propose a provision to exempt producers of CPO in the states from the payment of the additional cess. They should seek such exemption through their representative(s) sitting on the MPOB. Now! Is Sarawak represented on the MPOB anyway?

I say to the MPOB, colop! Halt the imposition of the proposed cess. The oil palm producers such as the millers in Sarawak are already hard pressed with erratic supplies of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) as a result of erratic harvesting. We used to get workers from across the border but this source of labour has practically dried up.

The producers are already burdened with the payment of RM14 for every tonne of crude oil and kernel oil. What guarantee is there that the millers will not pass the cess on to the smallholders? The industry is burdened with taxes and levies, not to mention the vagaries of the weather and the yo-yoing of the world market.

Our terrain 

The type of terrain of Sarawak is mostly rugged. Even if there is such a harvesting machine, it will be too expensive for smallholders, and it won’t work on steep hills.

The idea of using machines to harvest the fresh fruit has been thought about many years ago among big plantation owners in Peninsular Malaysia. A big time company there tested mechanised harvesting on land as flat as the football field. The prototype worked, but it was considered uneconomical.

The answer is still human sweat and muscle. To get harvesters is the dire necessity now; the need for a new tax is not dire enough. We in Sarawak have to think in terms of employing locals and paying them well. If we have to employ foreign labourers, there must be a proper policy: decent wages, proper accommodation, health supervision, and the employers are responsible for their return to the home countries when they have completed their contracts. Let’s forget about the cess and think about humans first.

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