A coronavirus pandemic-induced labour crunch has forced managers of the 2,000-hectare estate in Slim River to find creative ways to upkeep their fields, even as prices of the world's most consumed edible oil are near record highs.
Global food prices have scaled 10-year highs this year - the Food and Agriculture Organization's price index is up more than a third since last summer - due in large part to a surge in the price of vegoils that are vital for both food preparation and as fat in numerous daily staples. "It is especially bad in Sarawak. Some companies are seeing production falling by 50% because of the shortage of harvesters," said a plantation manager, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
However, operations at palm oil mills, where the palm fruit is converted into crude palm oil, have been impacted by COVID-19 restrictions, said Dorab Mistry, director of Indian consumer goods company and major consumer Godrej International. A July heatwave then scorched crops throughout the Canadian Prairies, leading the U.S. Department of Agriculture to slash its estimate of canola output by 4.2 million tonnes to 16 million tonnes, the lowest since the 2012-13 season.
In some good news for buyers, Brazil's soybean crop is expected to hit a record 144.06 million tonnes in the 2020/21 season, driven by a 4% rise in the area planted to the crop, agribusiness consultancy Datagro estimated. "We have multiple issues with edible oil supplies worldwide, palm oil in Malaysia, canola in Canada and La Nina curbing soybean output in South America," Mistry said.
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