Sarawak plantation companies put to the test

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THE endurance of Sarawak-based planters is being put to the test again.
Just after being slapped with new criteria by the Rountable On Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) grouping last year, which prohibits its member planters to set up new oil palm plantations on peatland and primary forests, Sarawak planters are shaken now by a similar policy adopted by its largest CPO purchaser, Wilmar International Ltd recently.
Wilmar’s move has been met with swift criticism.
Sarawak state government officials, Sarawak Oil Palm Plantation Owners Association (SOPPOA) which represents a group of major oil palm plantation companies and the East Malaysia Planters Association have made scathing statements, criticising the move by Wilmar, Asia’s leading agriculture business conglomerate.
SOPPOA at one point says that: “One could not simply wipe out plantations with over 25 years of oil palm cultivation in peat areas in Sarawak as these estates had proven to be as productive as those planted on mineral soil.”
Many Sarawak-based planters are also claiming that they are fighting a lonely battle on the issue of peatland as their counterparts in Sabah and Peninsular Malaysia are planting on the acceptable mineral soil.
Based on Malaysia Palm Oil Board’s data, the total area planted with oil palm in Sarawak is 750,000ha, of which more than 50%, or about 400,000ha, is on peat land.
“We are not even getting the full support from the Malaysian Palm Oil Association and others and also from the Federal Government agencies,” claims a plantation member of SOPPOA to StarBizWeek recently.
While it has been considered “taboo” to plant on peat land, oil palm cultivation in Sarawak currently accounts for over 1.2 million ha of arable land and has proven to be productive in optimising use of designated agriculture areas.
In fact, oil palm plantation on peatland can yield 25 tonnes of CPO per ha given proper management compared with a yield of about 18 tonnes per ha from mineral soil.
According to Dr Lulie Melling, director of the Tropical Peat Research Laboratory Unit under the Sarawak Chief Minister Department, Sarawak will continue to pursue developing once unproductive virgin peatland into valuable palm oil plantation (resource) for the state despite the setback by Wilmar’s decision.
Lulie points out that it is hypocritical of Western NGOs to criticise Sarawak’s utilisation of peatland for oil palm when the UK had already deforested 80% of its forests while in the Netherlands about 175,000ha of peat soil had shrunk to only 5,000 ha.