KUCHING: It is estimated that Sarawak faces a shortage of 45,000 foreign workers in the oil palm plantation sector, where more than 70 per cent were involved in harvesting jobs.
Sarawak Oil Palm Plantation Owners Association (SOPPOA) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Felix Moh Mee Ho said the shortage was estimated in November last year and anticipated to intensify, as more leave as their contracts are expiring and they do not wish to extend.
He said Malaysia's crude palm oil price hit RM5,000 a tonne in October 2021 and another record high of RM6,000 on Feb 17.
However, local palm oil companies cannot enjoy the full benefit of the pricing as 20 to 30 per cent of present palm fruits are left unharvested and rotten due to shortage of workers.
"The losses incurred by the company also means a loss of opportunity to the government to generate more revenue through collection of corporate taxes," he said.
"We are really in dire need of foreign workers," he said in a statement.
Moh said labour shortage has always been a perennial issue in the oil palm sector as companies tend to employ sufficient workers for normal operations to control cost, and usually only face worker shortage during peak production months.
He said lack of interest, negative perceptions, and having different skill sets were among the reasons why plantation companies were unable to rely on locals to work in their plantations.
He said Sarawak oil palm plantation companies require 160,000 workers to achieve optimal operation.
"While other states are open to different nationalities, Sarawak only allows migrant workers from Indonesia in the agricultural sectors, hence, we are highly dependent on foreign workers from Indonesia," he explained.
"The recruitment process for foreign workers is a tedious process due to multi-ministry involvement, where a lot of time and resources are wasted during the processes."
For example, Moh said, from submitting an application to recruiting foreign workers to approval takes not less than six or eight months. This has resulted in a serious backlog of applications to fill up overdue vacancies.
He said the Covid-19 pandemic has further exacerbated the labour shortage faced by the Sarawak oil palm plantation sector to a breaking point as international borders are closed to curb the spread of virus.
As a result, the oil palm plantations are unable to replenish vacancies left by the foreign workers who had returned to their respective home countries prior to the pandemic.
