KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 7): The country's oil palm sector is in dire need of close to an additional 200,000 foreign workers, said the Malaysian Estate Owners' Association (MEOA).

In a statement, MEOA said the figure is based on the latest updates by government agencies at the National Labour Forum organised by the Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOA) on Tuesday (Dec 6).

The forum was told that as of Sept 30, total foreign workers deemed active in the plantation sector were 150,608, sad MEOA.

"Set against Peninsular Malaysia's total oil palm planted area of 2.6 million hectares, this would translate into a labour-to-land ratio of 1:17.

"No oil palm estate can sustainably operate beyond the ratio of 1:14, especially if they do not or cannot mechanise," MEOA  president Jeffrey Ong said in the statement.

Noting that the number of foreign workers applied for as of Nov 2 stood at 131,164, MEOA said: "Taking the present number of workers and assuming 100% success rate for new applications entering and working, this will add up to a total of 281,772 workers in the plantation sector.

"[This] translates into a labour-to-land ratio of around 1:9, a closer indicator to the normal ratio of 1:8 used as reference for labour-to-land ratio in oil palm plantations in Peninsular Malaysia."

The numbers of foreign workers required in Sabah and Sarawak were not added.

"At the forum, representatives from the Sarawak Oil Palm Plantation Owners Association and East Malaysia Planters' Association estimated that the foreign workers for the oil palm sector in Sarawak stood at 45,000 in Sarawak and 20,000 and Sabah.

"Cumulatively, the oil palm plantation sector in the whole of Malaysia is in dire need of close to an additional 200,000 foreign workers," said MEOA.

MEOA also noted that large plantation groups have an efficient recruitment rate of two foreign workers to every one for the rest of the industry.

It said MPOA's latest survey showed that the recruitment of foreign workers in the first 11 months of this year was among its 10 planter members, indicating that its members had higher success rates.

"This may be attributed to its members having operations and in-house recruitment services in the source countries to facilitate the recruitment processes.

"The sampled MPOA members had 49% successful entries against the approved foreign workers but [only] 19% of successful entries to-date against the total foreign workers required. In simple terms, the bigger plantation groups have an efficient recruitment rate of two foreign workers to every one for the rest of the industry now," said MEOA.

According to the association, only 56,282 recruitment applications had been approved for the plantation sector as of Oct 3, due to various reasons and this translated into actual realised entries of 12,390 foreign workers for the sector.

This works out to a success rate of only 22% for foreign worker entries against the total approved applications, and a "striking and undesirable 9% successful entry rate set against the total number of foreign workers' applications".

"What is clear is that there is still a wide gap and much work to do on the recruitment and the return of foreign workers, along with the search for the numbers of foreign workers required in the plantation sector.

"MEOA together with all the other stakeholders look forward to engaging with the government and the relevant authorities to expedite the process. Crops are rotting on the trees and losses continue," said MEOA.