The National Palm Oil Conference 2023 took place on the 2nd and 3rd of October at the Sunway Resort Hotel in PJ. The event, which was the first event of its kind to be organised by the MPOA, was intended to serve as a meeting point for industry professionals, academics and members of government to discuss the state of the palm oil industry in Malaysia.

The event provided the platform for a range of discussions to take place on key issues impacting the domestic palm oil sector. Over the course of the day, we heard from various veterans of the industry, including Mr Joseph Tek Choon Yee, Chief Executive of the MPOA, who discussed some of the key issues the industry presently faces. This included ongoing efforts to appeal to reform the Windfall Price Levy on palm oil companies, which industry players believe has been aplied unevenly. He also mentioned concurrent challenges faced with regards to labour, pointing to the shortages in the industry, as well as lower-than-desired productivity levels being acheived by the workforce.

Mr Tek also spoke at length about mechanisation, and the various operational efficiencies and productivity issues that could be resolved with the introduction of effective mechanisation solutions. For instance, he mentinoned the current labour to land ration of 1:17 which MARCOP (The Mechanisation and Automation Research Consortium of Oil Palm) aims to improve to 1:100 over the next 5 years through targeted mechanisation solutions. In addition, he mentioned the cosiderable losses of FFB that occur on plantations during transportation, another area which could be significantly improved using mechanisation tehcnologies.

Miss Belvinder Kaur Sron, CEO of the Malaysia Palm Oil Council, also took to the stage, focusing her discussions on legislation by the European Union impacting the palm oil sector. She drew particular attention to concerns surrounding the European Unions Deforestation-free Regulations and the high standards of compliance relating to geo-location and benchmarking, pointing towards the implications of these on smallholder farmers.

She also mentioned the risk involved if palm oil exports to the European Unon were to cease. Among the concerns that she raised, included the immediate availability of large volumes of palm oil which would disrupt global palm oil markets. She also mentioned that this would lead to corresponding rise in prices, and cause signifant disruptions to associated business operations. She went on to mention that Malaysian palm oil should be deemed as 'low risk' as efforts by local producers involving MSPO certification have led to reductions in the total planted area of palm oil in recent years. She added that MSPO should be officially recognised by EU as an acceptable standard of certification.

During the exibiton segment of NPOC 2023, our manufacturing partner Kingoya Enterprise conducted product showcase of the EVAC 180 FFB evacuation device as well as the ECUT ACE Precision Electrical Harvesting Cutter. We demonstrated both machines to interested parties, highlighting key features of the products and how they aim to resolve industry challenges.

The EVAC 180 received much positive attention during the official pre-launch we conducted and we were able to highlight its key features, including its 5-speed motor functionality and special UVPE netting design to educate booth visitors on how the device will revolutionise the plantation sector. We were also able to speak to interested parties about potentials for servicing their plantation operations with our tools and machines moving forwards.

Overall it was a highly engaging and informative conference event and we came away with a much deeper understanding of the industry's challenges and how to best coordinate our product development initiatives to meet the needs of clients in the months and years to come.