Malaysia: Oilseeds and Products Update
The Government of Malaysia (GOM) decision not to extend the amnesty program for undocumented illegal foreign workers beyond July 1, 2017 saw the industry facing an acute shortage of manual labor. In addition, the depreciation of Malaysian currency by as much as 30 percent made working in Malaysia less attractive as workers earned less in Malaysian currency. No major weather anomaly is expected for the rest of the marketing year. As a result, the 2016/17 production forecast is maintained at 19.5 million tons as Post anticipated the labor issue when previously forecasting the 2016/17 palm oil production.
