THE long-standing manpower shortage in the vegetable farming sector has been exacerbated during the Covid-19 pandemic, greatly affecting local production, domestic growers said.

They estimated that the workforce was currently short of at least 30,000 farmers and workers. They predicted that if the problem remained unresolved, Malaysia would have to rely more on imports for vegetable supplies.

They also told The Malaysian Insight that locals were unwilling to get involved in the ‘difficult and dirty’ jobs on the farms, while foreign workers previously employed in the sector were still stuck outside the country’s borders.

With the current shortage compounded by the climate and Covid-19 crises, growers said it would be difficult to increase vegetable production. The farmers said they had tried minimising the impact of these challenges by growing vegetables that could be harvested quickly.

Malaysian Federation of Vegetable Farmers Association Lim Ser Kwee said the pandemic was aggravating the severity of the manpower shortage that the government had failed to solve over the years.

“We are short of 30,000 to 40,000 foreign workers, and the output of the vegetable farms (falls far short of) that before the epidemic.

“Every vegetable farm lacks 40% in workers. In the past, there would be 10 workers in a vegetable garden… now there are six or fewer.

“Foreign workers who had returned home are unable to come back due to the border blockade.

“And the climate isn’t (making it) easy to harvest vegetables. I am afraid that we will need to rely on imported vegetables to supply groceries in the future,” he said.

Lim said that the recent soaring prices of palm oil have also driven foreign workers out of farms and into oil palm plantation, as the salaries offered in palm oil production had increased to RM2,000.

Vegetable farmers could not compete with this as they could only afford to pay between RM1,400 and RM1,500.

He also said vegetables could not be harvested by machines and must be picked manually. He urged the Home Ministry to prioritise allowing originally hired foreign workers to resume work here.

Lim had estimated that 10,000 foreign workers were waiting to return to Malaysia and to work with their employers.

“We hope that those who have work visas that have yet to expire are allowed to return to work first. The farmers have contacted the workers and all have indicated that they are willing to come back,” he said.

Shrinking production

Cameron Highlands Vegetable Growers Association secretary Chay Ee Mong said the farms in the region lacked nearly 6,000 employees.

This has led to a reduction in the growing of vegetables that require manual picking, such as beans and chillies.

He said 70% of the chillies in the country are imported. In addition, the cost of planting chillies is high, with the manpower and land required adding to the challenges posed by climate issues.

“Most (sellers) rely on imported chillies because they are relatively cheap. Eggplants are also less locally grown, and half the supply of cabbage is imported,” Chay said.

He asserted that vegetable farmers were not unwilling to grow a variety of vegetables, but that they truly lacked manpower and land. Domestic farmers currently plant more than 40 types of vegetables.

Chay also said that the ban on dining-in during the various movement-restriction periods had also affected the demand for vegetables.

At the time, farmers were forced to discard vegetables and had begun to plant less.

“The more vegetables farmers grow, the more they lose,” he said.

However, even with dine-ins being allowed in states that have entered Phase 2 or Phase 3 of the National Recovery Plan, Chay said the demand did not improve.

Import to meet needs

Kuala Lumpur Vegetable Traders’ Association president Wong Keng Fatt said that the business volume for restaurants has yet to see growth, so there has been no increase in orders from vegetable wholesalers.

In addition, vegetable prices were expected to rise from October to November because of the monsoon season, he said.

He said that production would inevitably be affected because of this.

The prices of vegetables had dropped in September due to there being sufficient production, he added.

Wong said that another reason wholesalers were ordering vegetables from foreign countries now was because it was more convenient to do so, and cheaper.

“For example, tomatoes are imported from Thailand. We can place an order today and the goods will arrive tomorrow. The transportation is convenient.

“Currently, vegetables like sawi, pak choy and tomatoes are cheaper, while lettuce, edamame and Japanese cucumber prices have risen by RM1 or RM2 a kilogramme,” Wong said.

He also admitted that wholesalers would import vegetables from abroad in the future if the country’s farm manpower and land shortage issues were not solved. – October 5, 2021.