Malaysian plantations in jeopardy

Malaysian plantations in jeopardy

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysia's oil palm, rubber and cocoa plantations, already bogged down by an acute labor shortage, are facing a new problem -- an aging workforce, a newspaper reported yesterday.

Most workers are aged more than 40 while attempts to recruit local youths to join the industry have failed, said United Planting Association of Malaysia (UPAM) chief executive Abdul Rahman Mohamed.

Despite improved amenities and wages, youths were shunning plantation work for the bright lights in the cities which offered jobs that were not "as back-breaking", Abdul Rahman was reported saying by The Star daily.

There was a shortage of some 87,000 agricultural workers in the country in 1994, the bulk of 42,000 whom were needed in the oil palm sector, 10,000 in rubber estates and 35,000 in cocoa plantations.

"The situation in the oil palm sector is really bad as apart from manpower shortage there is also a lack of ready-made and suitable equipment for harvesting," he added.

Abdul Rahman said the situation had forced the industry to continue to rely on foreigners since 1977. He urged the government for a faster approval of work permits for foreigners to meet the shortfall.

Malaysia's rapid economic growth, averaging more than 8 percent yearly since 1988, has resulted in a severe labor crunch in the plantations, construction and industrial sectors, attracting an influx of foreign workers.

Foreign workers now number about two million of the country's 8.05 million workforce, the highest ratio of foreign labor to local workforce in the region, officials said.

Of the two million foreigners, an estimated one million were illegally hired mainly from the Philippines, Bangladesh, Indonesia, India, Thailand, Pakistan and Burma, they said.

The government, which has said the number of illegal immigrants has reached a critical stage, intensified its crackdown to flush out such immigrants following the expiry of an amnesty on January 31.