After decades of manpower shortage, the oil palm industry still has not found its ideal cutting machine: a machine more productive than above “lone cutter”. 

Five years after the “Mechanise or Perish” MEOA Malacca 2-day seminar, 3 mechanical cutting machines were tested in Malaysia and Indonesia in 2021.

All 3 machines were 3 times less productive than the “lone cutter”! (Ok, a “lone cutter” assisted by a mechanical grabbing machine, its operator, a stacker, a loose fruits picker, a checker, a pruner, a mandor).

All planters ask for, is a mechanical cutting device that emulates Sime Darby’s “lone cutter” productivity of 30 tons of bunches per year per hectare of Carey Island, or United Plantations’ 29 tons across all their Malaysian estates!

This means, there’s an imperative need for a mechanical cutter that finds, cuts and sends to the mill a bunch every single minute of every single hour of a daily 8-hour shift!

With the current acute labour shortage, the oil palm industry needs that machine to do all of the above with 50% less labour than the “lone cutter” and his team. Otherwise, it can no longer call itself sustainable!

Check out how Malaysian, Indonesian and Europe based oil palm experts designed a machine that delivers just that!

We will unveil for you next week what the machine does within a single minute. Stay tuned!