The coronavirus pandemic has left Malaysia’s palm oil industry without enough workers, a shortage that could cost farmers as much as 25 percent of their annual production — a loss worth about $2.8 billion.
Malaysia’s economy relies on palm oil, its most important agricultural commodity, but palm oil needs migrant workers from Indonesia, Bangladesh and India to do jobs locals won’t. As countries in Southeast Asia struggle to get the COVID-19 outbreak under control, governments have tightened restrictions on travel for workers both coming and going.
"In the past, when people left, people also came,” said Nageeb Wahab, chief executive at the Malaysian Palm Oil Association, a growers’ group that represents 40 percent of palm plantations by area. "Now, the coming is nil, and the leaving may be more after Malaysia’s movement control order.”