KUALA LUMPUR: The Cabinet has given its approval for the plantation industry to resume operations during the Covid-19 movement restriction order period with immediate effect.
The Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOA) said the approval had conditions attached, including requiring the industry to ensure that precautionary measures are taken to contain and address the Covid-19 situation.
“All guidelines and conditions set by the authorities to contain Covid-19 are to be strictly adhered to, failing which this approval to operate may be revoked.
“In this context, we plead for our members to introduce standard operating procedures to that effect,” it said in a statement today.
Palm oil plantations had requested an exemption, said Dr Nageeb Wahab, director-general of the Malaysian Palm Oil Association.
A two-week halt in operations will be damaging to the industry with fresh fruit bunches left to rot and the livelihoods of smallholders affected, an analyst said.
“Inventory is low. If we don’t allow the planters to work for two weeks, after fulfilling export orders, we will be left with very little inventory which will be unprecedented,” Ivy Ng, regional head of plantations research at CIMB Investment Bank said.
Malaysia’s February end-stocks fell to 1.68 million tonnes, the lowest since June 2017, according to data from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board.
Nageeb has said it would take two to three months for things to return to normalcy after a shutdown. – March 18, 2020, Bernama
