KUCHING: For every industry, sustainability is a key word in safeguarding a stable future.

Being one of the biggest producers and exporters of palm oil and palm oil products, Malaysia has an important role to play in fulfilling the global’s world’s growing need for oils and fats.

These environment-friendly practices at Pamol Estate are further extended to harvesting of FFBs where a herd of buffaloes is employed to collect the fruits on the field. Aplasami explained that currently there are about 50 heads of buffaloes in the estate.

It has now become an integral objective for major businesses and industries worldwide. Consumers and investors are also growing more conscious about the operational impact companies or industries have on society and the environment.

For agro-based industries such as palm oil, sustainability goes beyond crunching high numbers in growth and profits. It has become a responsibility for oil palm companies to identify ways and solutions to grow the industry while maintaining the rich biodiversity of the environment and being socially responsible to the local communities.

One such company practising sustainable production of palm oil is IOI Corp. IOI Corp is one of the major growers of oil palm in Malaysia; having more than 91 oil palm estates spanning across Malaysia and Indonesia. About 66 per cent of its estate areas are located in East Malaysia.

Being a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, IOI Corp has embedded sustainability and corporate responsibility in its core values, policy statements and work practices across its global operations.

During a recent trip to Johor, The Borneo Post was given the chance to visit a tour of Pamol Estate in Kluang, one of IOI Corp’s high performance estates where high-yielding, fast growing oil palm clones have already been planted.

According to Aplasami, the estate manager of East Pamol Estate, the high yielding clones have been replanted in the estate to further boost productivity, covering to almost 60 per cent of the estate’s area.

He added that his estate’s annual productivity has regularly surpassed the national average of about 19 tonnes of fresh fruit bunches.

“Pamol Estate also adopts integrated pest management via biological means such as the use of barn owls and a natural sex hormone to control oil palm’s pests,” he explained.

“Barn owls are a natural predator for rats, which are ever present in an oil palm estate. A pair of barn owls with chicks is capable of killing 2,000 rats per year; minimissing the use of poisons and baits which target other animal species too.”

Meanwhile, pheromones is used to attract rhinoceros beetles, mostly females, into a trap.

These beetles feed and breed inside the oil palm trunks and they become a big problem especially during the replanting process when the old trunks are felled and left on the ground.

Once trapped, the beetles will soon die and later recycled as a natural fertiliser to the oil palm trees.

These environment-friendly practices at Pamol Estate are further extended to harvesting of FFBs where a herd of buffaloes is employed to collect the fruits on the field. Aplasami explained that currently there are about 50 heads of buffaloes in the estate.

“These buffaloes are well trained and cared for including a regular check up by a veterinarian,” he added. “The use of buffaloes helps the estate to reduce consumption on fossil fuels and further improve its carbon footprint performance.”

Malaysia currently accounts for 34 per cent of global palm oil production and 41 per cent of global palm oil exports. If taken into account of other oils & fats produced globally, Malaysia accounts for 11 per cent and 26 per cent of the total production and exports, respectively.

Being one of the biggest producers and exporters of palm oil and palm oil products, Malaysia has an important role to play in fulfilling the global’s world’s growing need for oils and fats. It is therefore crucial for the Malaysian industry to ensure that its palm oil is sustainably and responsibly produced.

The trip to IOI Corp’s Pamol Estate indeed proves that sustainable practices are engaged rife within in the Malaysian palm oil industry.