MUCH hope has been placed on increasing the mechanisation of palm fruit harvesting techniques and reducing foreign labour in the country’s robust oil palm industry.

Unfortunately, efforts to introduce a workable and efficient mechanised harvester remain futile, leading to deep dependence on foreign workers among many oil palm estates nationwide.

Lipidos Santiga (Lipsa) has noted that it obtained the certification to supply sustainable palm and palm kernel oils in the categories of Segregation and Mass Balance as per the RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) criteria on December 8, 2009.

Lipsa was the first Spanish company to obtain such certifications and one of the first in Europe. 

Palm oil prices can possibly touch RM2,800 or RM3,000 per tonne this year due to strong demand and the El-Nino weather phenomenon, IOI Corporation Bhd Executive Chairman Tan Sri Lee Shin Cheng says.