The monsoon season arrives towards the end of every year. Thousands of hectares of oil palm plantations begin to receive continuous rainfall, sometimes lasting for days or even weeks. Gravel roads become muddy and slippery, while some develop potholes and eventually become impassable.
In oil palm plantations, the annual rainy season is one of the most challenging periods of the year. Almost every plantation operation begins to feel its impact.
The most critical issue is accessibility. Thousands of kilometres of plantation roads connect the office to every corner of the estate, stretching across valleys, lowlands, foothills and slopes. Even the main access roads to the plantations can be affected by floods. Bridges may collapse, roads may become submerged, and vehicles may break down or slide into roadside drains.
Palm oil mills are equally affected by these disruptions.
When roads become damaged or access is cut off, harvesting rounds become longer. Fresh fruit bunches (FFB) begin to over-ripen, and loose fruits fall to the ground. Even harvested FFB may take several days before they can be transported to the mill.
Eventually, rotten and deteriorated fruit bunches begin arriving at the mill.
At the mill, however, every tonne of FFB received still needs to be processed, whether fresh or unfresh. Decades ago, badly deteriorated fruit bunches might simply have been separated and discarded. Today, every single bunch represents money, and everyone wants to recover as much value as possible from the available crop.
Unfortunately, the quality of crude palm oil (CPO) begins to deteriorate.
Free Fatty Acid (FFA) levels increase, sometimes exceeding the 5% threshold specified by PORAM. When better-quality CPO is available, we try to blend it with the poorer-quality oil to minimise the overall impact before delivery to the refinery.
Any CPO with an FFA level exceeding 5% may attract a price penalty from the refinery.
However, not every quality parameter can be corrected through blending. One example is the Deterioration of Bleachability Index (DOBI). When CPO originates from severely deteriorated or rotten fruit, its DOBI value is affected, and blending alone cannot reliably restore it to an acceptable level.
Another challenge is the mill's limited CPO storage capacity.
Ironically, the monsoon season often coincides with the peak crop season. Just when harvesting activities are at their highest, transportation becomes increasingly difficult. Eventually, CPO storage tanks approach full capacity. Regardless of the quality, the CPO must still be sold and transported to the refinery to make room for continuous mill operations.
When the refinery imposes quality penalties, the pressure starts coming from another direction.
The Head Office, particularly the Marketing Department, begins questioning why the mill is delivering CPO with poor quality. As the mill manager, I inevitably become the person facing the pressure from both sides: the plantation teams struggling with harvesting and transportation, and the Head Office demanding better CPO quality.
To ease the situation, I decided to bring the issue to the attention of a Senior General Manager (Sr GM). I explained the challenges involving deteriorated FFB, high CPO FFA levels and the resulting penalties imposed by the refinery.
The Sr GM was known as a very strict and fierce senior management figure.
Without wasting much time, he immediately instructed the Marketing Department to visit the mill, together with all Estate Managers and the Plantation Controller.
One morning, the meeting began in the mill's meeting room. After the discussion, everyone was instructed to proceed to the FFB ramp.
There, hundreds of tonnes of fruit bunches had already been segregated and left for several days. Most of them came from plantations that had been severely affected by flooding.
All the Estate Managers stood quietly, looking at the piles of deteriorated fruit bunches.
Nobody said a word.
Suddenly, the Sr GM broke the silence.
"All of you, look at this!
It has been raining for weeks. Plantation roads are damaged. Bridges have collapsed. The fruits are rotten. CPO FFA is high.
There is nothing much we can do.
THIS IS AN ACT OF GOD!"
That was it.
Everyone returned to their respective plantations.
The Marketing Department, which had travelled all the way from Kuala Lumpur to visit a remote plantation area, approximately 90 kilometres from Lahad Datu town, was left somewhat speechless.
That is my story for today.
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