Najib: Oil palm smallholders losing out with plummeting prices

At the rate palm oil prices are falling, Najib Abdul Razak has questioned whether there would be any profit left to be made by oil palm smallholders.

Directing his query to the Pakatan Harapan government, the former premier accused the latter of issuing confusing statements instead of helping smallholder farmers in this situation.

Taking to Facebook, Najib expressed shock that the price of Grade C oil palm fresh fruit bunches (FFB) in Sabah had dropped from RM566 per tonne last year to RM349 per tonne last week, to just RM311 last night.

"Worse still is that the price is expected to drop even further, and it won't be impossible if the official price of oil palm fresh fruit bunches drops below RM300 (per tonne) soon.

"Minus the cost of the poison, the fertiliser and labour costs, what do the farmers have left to profit from?

"The Agriculture Minister (Salahuddin Ayub) and the Harapan government have done nothing other than issue confusing statements that the exports have increased even though it is clear that exports and prices have suddenly dropped drastically after the 14th general election, compared to last year," he posted.

The Pekan lawmaker claimed millions of farmers’ family members were "suffering" as a result.

Najib (photo) claimed that the government's announcement regarding slowed third-quarter GDP growth "officially confirmed" that the farming sector was facing economic deterioration after falling GDPs in two consecutive quarters.

"The rural economy is facing serious pressure.

"A caring government, at such a time, would increase aid to such groups.

"But Harapan did the opposite. The aid is not increased, but slashed up to 50 percent and some eliminated," he said.

Bank Negara reported yesterday that the annual GDP growth from July to September was 4.4 percent, down from 4.5 percent for April-June.

Najib had previously criticised the 2019 Budget for neglecting farmers, agricultural workers, plantation workers and fishermen.

However, Port Dickson MP Anwar Ibrahim had on Thursday stated that the government has agreed to give additional allocation to fishermen, farmers and livestock breeders to help reduce their cost of living.

“I asked the minister of finance to reconsider the allocation, and if possible, to give more to the poor and he agreed...and even considered to implement it immediately," Anwar had said.