KUCHING: Sarawak exported 3.13 million metric tons of oil palm products as of August this year, with an estimated value of over RM11.02 billion, Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg said today.
He noted that this figure represents a 13 per cent increase compared to the RM9.78 billion worth of oil palm products exported last year.
"This means that this year there is a slight increase in our income from the palm oil industry," he said at the opening of a seminar on the transfer of technology in the palm oil industry organised by the state Ministry of Food Industry, Commodity and Regional Development and the Malaysian Palm Oil Board.
Abang Johari said Sarawak has 1.6 million hectares under oil palm cultivation, the largest in the country, although it started much later compared to 107 years ago for Peninsular Malaysia.
The premier also called on the major oil palm plantation companies to investment in research and development in their farm management to improve productivity and to solve the problems of shortage of labour.
"If we still use the old ways, I feel the yields will not increase.
"What we should do is to use technology in our plantation management," he said.
He said he was at an oil palm plantation in northern Sarawak last week to observe how harvesting oil palm fruits can be done by a specially designed vehicle.
He said the vehicle not only harvest but also collect fruits, adding it was operated by a woman who used remote control.
He said upon becoming chief minister after the death of Tan Sri Adenan Satem in 2017, he had allocated RM5 million grant each to Swinburne University of Technology, Sarawak campus, and Sarawak Oil Palm Plantation company to conduct research on machines for harvesting fresh fruit bunches.
"There are many sceptics who claimed that it was not possible to invent machines that could harvest fruits on their own without the use of manpower.'After four years of research, I noticed that Sarawak Oil Palm Plantation company has succeded," he said.
He said the vehicle not only can harvest but can collect fruits, adding it was operated by a woman who used remote control.
The premier also called on the major oil palm plantation companies to conduct research on the waste as a source to generate energy.
"That is why I have asked Datuk Seri Stephen Rundie (Minister of Food Industry, Commodity and Regional Development) and oil palm industry players to undertake long-term research on the waste by taking into consideration the views of the experts," he said.
He said, apart from generating energy, the waste can be converted to fertiliser can be for animal feedstock," he said.
Speaking to reporters later, the premier said he has discussed with MPOB to become an equity partner with Sarawak Oil Palm Plantation in a factory to manufacture the harvesting vehicles.
He said the state government also came into the venture.
"We will become the main manufacturer of the vehicle in the palm oil industry not only in Malaysia but also in Southeast Asia," he said.