Malaysia’s palm oil output recovery hopes dashed as fertiliser, worker shortages persist
- Fertiliser prices surged over the last year on logistics snarl-ups and the Ukraine war while an intake of foreign labourers was approved, there’s a prolonged delay in getting them
- The Malaysian Palm Oil Association said yields in the country will likely be lower than expected over the rest of the year
On top of that, government efforts to bring in more foreign plantation workers aren’t happening fast enough to revive production this year. The shortage has worsened to around 120,000 workers, compared with 36,000 before the pandemic, according to Jeffrey Ong, president of the Malaysian Estate Owners’ Association, whose members are mainly small and medium-sized planters.
“Oil palms will not reach their full potential because of the lack of fertiliser input in the past three years and the shortage of labour,” he said. “Even if you had money, you couldn’t get certain types of fertilisers.”
Malaysian Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin said last month that palm oil production would rebound to 23 to 25 million tonnes this year, up from a five-year low of 18.1 million tonnes in 2021.
Ong is estimating it will be less than 19 million tonnes. The Malaysian Palm Oil Association, which mainly represents bigger listed companies, sees even lower output of 18.5 million to 18.7 million tonnes.