Three to five years before automation bears fruit, says MPOC chairman

PETALING JAYA: It will take some three to five years before plantation stakeholders who invested in automation could see the potential outcome, says Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) chairman Larry Sng.

Sng said that if the efforts invested pull through, the industry will no longer be heavily dependent on foreign labour.

"Mechanisation is high on the agenda and some major companies have already invested in them but it takes a little more time before you see the fruition.

"Research has been put into automation, and it will take a few years for us to know the results,” he told The Star yesterday.

Sng, who is Julau MP was responding to the on-going issue of labour shortages in the plantation sector.

Sng also said the use of drones and vibration for harvesting fruits are a few examples companies are looking at, adding that there is more technology to explore.

On Wednesday, Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin said India and Pakistan have offered to send their citizens to work in Malaysian plantations.

As there are issues in procuring labour from Bangladesh and Indonesia, workers from India and Pakistan may be the short-term solution for the plantation industry, Zuraida told the Parliament.

Incorporated Society of Planters chief executive I. Rajindran said in view of labour shortages, automation and digitalisation are a way forward for the plantation industry to sustain in the business.

Although there is no one best solution, he said automation will be able to provide a different means for the industry to operate instead of losing millions.

He added that incorporating digitalisation and smart farming could also attract young locals to work in the industry and help them develop new skills.

Human Resources Malaysia (Pusma) president Zarina Ismail also agreed that the only foreseeable solution is switching to the use of technology.

She said the implications of labour have caused Malaysia to be in Tier Three of the US State Department’s annual human trafficking report.