KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's palm oil producers are embarking on a rare recruitment drive to hire locals and accelerating industry mechanisation as they grapple with a severe shortage of foreign labour due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Countries like Indonesia and Bangladesh provide nearly 85 per cent of plantation workers for palm companies such as Sime Darby, IOI Corp and United Plantations. Despite a rising unemployment rate, Imran said most of the interest at the recruitment day was for general duties, such as driver or mechanic, rather than the taxing and crucial task of harvesting.With more foreign workers leaving, some severely understaffed smaller firms, which are less able to retain migrant labour, have resorted to poaching workers from competitors.
It's also turning to remote sensing and artificial intelligence to drive"precision farming", making the most efficient use of farm inputs and field workers.