Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 31): Sime Darby Plantation Bhd’s share price fell, among Bursa Malaysia's top decliners, in morning trade today after the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said yesterday palm oil and products containing palm oil produced by Sime Darby Plantation and its subsidiaries, joint ventures (JVs) and affiliated entities in Malaysia would now be detained at all US ports of entry due to forced labour allegations.

At 9.02am today, Sime Darby Plantation had fallen nine sen or 1.74% to RM5.08.

At RM5.08, Sime Darby Plantation had a market value of about RM34.95 billion based on the company’s number of issued shares at 6.88 billion units.

In a late statement yesterday, the CBP said the issuance of its withhold release order against Sime Darby Plantation's palm oil would be effective from the same day.

"The issuance of the withhold release order against Sime Darby Plantation's palm oil is based on information that reasonably indicates the presence of all 11 of the International Labour Organization’s forced labour indicators in Sime Darby Plantation’s production process,” the CBP said.

At the time of writing today,  Sime Darby Plantation had not issued a Bursa statement in response to the CBP’s allegations of forced labour in the company's operations.

According to the CBP’s statement yesterday, the withhold release order requires the detention of raw palm oil and processed products containing palm oil produced by Sime Darby Plantation at all US ports of entry . 

The CBP, however, said it would provide importers of detained shipments opportunities to export their shipments or demonstrate that the merchandise was not produced with forced labour.

"The CBP has received allegations of forced labour from a variety of sources, including from the general public,” the CBP said.

It said yesterday that in September, it issued a separate withhold release order against another Malaysian palm oil producer, namely FGV Holdings Bhd. 

"That withhold release order was one of 13 that the CBP issued during fiscal year 2020,” it said.

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