Palm oil production at the edge of the jungle

Palm oil plantation

Out in the middle of nowhere, at the edge of a Borneo jungle lies Sukau, a village on the banks of the Kinabatangan River. It's booming with a growing tourism industry as river safaris are becoming more and more popular. They are much more pleasant than walks through the jungle so it's no surprise that tourists choose boat rides over going on foot.

In addition to income from tourism the village makes a living by growing palm trees for palm oil production. Malaysia is one of the world's top palm oil exporters and 30% of Borneo's exports last year were palm oil. Palm oil has many uses, such as for cooking, for animal feed, as an ingredient for cosmetics as well as for producing biodiesel fuel and many more.

Palm oil fruit

However, world demand for palm oil is declining due to increased palm oil production in neighboring Indonesia and general global economic crisis. The current production of palm oil in Malaysia is somewhat higher than demand. It is also difficult to find laborers to work in the plantations. Until recently, Indonesian immigrants were hired for these jobs but now that Indonesia is increasing palm oil production on its own, workers stay at home.

The Malaysian government has therefore put a stop to expanding palm oil plantations which were an environmental problem anyway as they reduced the natural habitats of wild animals in rainforests. They are now thinking about building plants for processing the crude palm oil into biodiesel fuel for both domestic use and for export.