Specialised Harvesters Minister Moots New Name For Oil Palm Workers

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PARLIAMENT | Plantation and Commodities Minister Johari Abdul Ghani said that branding palm oil harvesters as “specialised harvesters” can attract the interest of local youth.
Speaking in the Dewan Rakyat today, Johari said this is to alleviate the labour shortage issue affecting the industry.
The shortage of harvesters, he added, is serious as the economy will suffer RM8 billion, according to current prices.
Johari said Malaysia is relying heavily on migrant workers, which makes up 75 percent of the total workers in the palm oil industry.
“If there is a pandemic, they (migrant workers) will go home. Who will be there to harvest? That’s why we have to plan starting now. How do we encourage the youth to enter TVET?
“We need to let them take pride (in what they do), that harvesting is a specialised job.
“We can’t call them estate workers. We have to call them ‘specialised harvesters’,” he said during his ministry’s winding-up speech on the royal address debate today.
Three steps to harvesting
Further, Johari said the youth will be taught the first three steps of palm oil harvesting – how to identify ripe palm oil fruit, how to cut palm fronds and how to cut off the branches.
“The remaining steps can be done by migrant workers or mechanisation.
“Mechanisation can be used for work such as loading fruits into the lorry, collecting loose fruits and transporting them.”
This, he said, was different compared to the task of a normal harvester which consists of seven steps.
In addition, Johari stated that his ministry will start a pilot project to attract TVET trainees in a bid to have more harvesters.
“A total of 60 students will be undergoing this pilot project supervised by the Institute of Malaysian Plantation and Commodities, which will commence in April,” he added. - Mkini

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