Here's a #KhorReports snippet on online public interest in #coffee and #childlabor and #childlabour. Recently, we read an article concerning this problem on Guatemalan coffee farms. But the issue has been already of interest for months, including in the US and elsewhere.
Gender Issues: Women in Palm Oil Plantations
For women, there’s a bit of good news on the international front: Harvey Weinstein is finally found guilty. In global news headlines, concerns surrounding women at the workplace, attention is on the Weinstein case as well as Michael Bloomberg’s offer to release female employees from three non-disclosure agreements.
These appalling situations have come to light under the #MeToo movement. They highlight a shift in public opinion and there is hope the law changes the way it addresses gender discrimination and sexual allegations. Wall Street Journal’s Laura Kusisto (referring specifically to the Weinstein verdict) explains that factors which would have jeopardised a conviction before (such as the victims having to maintain cordial relationships with Weinstein even after his attacks), no longer hold the same currency today; the courts and the people in general are beginning to acknowledge that such complications do not invalidate the fact that misconduct occurred.
These issues turned our minds towards gender issues in the palm oil sector and its plantations. While rather distant and very different from the elements present above, there is concern about systemic issues and the discriminatory treatment of women at work. Our preliminary research into the matter revealed some issues at the estate and farm level:
Women have been largely hired as temporary workers and casual day labourers. Lacking permanent employment status, many female workers do not have pensions and other benefits including maternity leave, and they are vulnerable to sudden termination.
Field work is still largely gender segregated, especially since a fresh fruit bunch of palm oil can weight 20-30kg and mechanisation is limited. Women are generally given less physically demanding tasks: spreading fertilisers and spraying pesticides. Many female workers are exposed to harmful chemicals and there is concern about the adequacy of personal protection equipment and use compliance.
Many women (and occasionally even their children, but this should only be in their spare time after school), help their husbands, who are plantation workers tasked with collecting fruit bunches, to reach their husbands’ daily collection targets and bonuses. The work that these women may be largely unpaid (an example otherwise is the ‘Mama card’ in PNG where women earn on loose fruits collection).
Many key plantation companies have taken major steps to address these problems. (Ask us if you’d like to know more about the move to estate level gender committees and more). The position of women in palm oil is similar to the situation faced by women in other agriculture segments. There are systemic issues, but this is no longer an acceptable excuse. Only time will tell when more women workers gain more equitable outcomes in terms of permanent work status, job risks, pay and pensions.
Online Public Interest: 15 Years of Virus Outbreaks, Coronavirus, and Dr Li Wenliang
Here's a #KhorReports snippet on online public interest in the #coronavirus and other related issues, including comparisons with other #virus #outbreaks in the last 15 years and public attention on the death of Dr Li Wenliang.
Indonesia, the Environment & Health: Sugar Tax, Plastic Tax & Carbon Tax?
#Indonesia #sugartax #plastictax #carbontax? "Indonesia plans to impose excise duty on plastic bags, sugary drinks and vehicle emissions with the new levies expected to net the government about $1.7 billion in additional revenue annually." There are likely fewer to challenge sugar and plastic duty/taxes, but a move on vehicle emissions could become challenging for diesel usage, which has become a rising policy for the #palmoil sector.
Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati. Photo credit: Antara/Sigid Kurniawan.
#KhorReports contacts in Jakarta finance see a high possibility of implementation, with a senior economic advisor also explaining that “it could happen, considering the big short fall in [fiscal] revenue.” But naysayers see it as “desperate, with a 0% chance of implementation. It’s a last gasp for Sri Mulyani, who has to go.”
Khor Reports coverage of the sugar in popular local drinks, sweetened beverages, bubble tea and juices is here: Boba Boom: The Rise of Boba and the Sugar Strikes Back. The issue of waste plastic (especially on Malaysia) is covered here: Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Waste Plastic Imports to Malaysia.
Vegan Watch: Plants Galore!
Recent anecdotes and news on the vegan front suggests that plant-based diets may be more than just trendy.
On the anecdote front, a number of senior experts in our network (out here in Southeast Asia) doubt they can cut meat, but some muse that they could trim meat to a meal a day. We have been regularly showing our ‘Vegan Map of ASEAN’ and asking about diets during lulls in meetings and at meal gatherings. We are hearing more about a spouse, a child or a grandchild going plant-based; with some knock-on effects. There is also awareness that such diets have to be carefully researched (so as not to be deficient key amino acids and such), and we just heard a grandparent assure that his 12-year old grand daughter has done this thoroughly (and convince her siblings too).
In fact, it is my parent’s (the war) generation who told us stories that having chicken was a treat; and they sometimes used to carry around a (raw) fresh egg in their pockets rather than pay more for an egg to the street food vendor frying up their ‘char kway teow’ (friend rice noodles). Now, the ‘haves’ in Southeast Asia, can afford to eat chicken three times a day - at breakfast (with a nasi lemak, porridge, noodle, sandwich; depending which ASEAN food culture you are tapping), at lunch and at dinner.
On the news front, there are plenty of things to read. This year, 400,000 people around the world signed up for Veganuary, pledging to practice a vegan diet for the whole month of January—in comparison, only 250,000 signed up in 2019, and 170,000 in 2018. The growth in the number of vegan practitioners is eliciting response from the market, with various food chains, including KFC and Burger King, now offering plant-based products and menu items. There is even an app called Pay-a-Vegan that credits users for every vegan meal consumed in effort to encourage restaurants to offer more vegan options and connect vegans to eateries that cater to their dietary lifestyle.
Several celebrities and prominent businessmen have also lent their support in the vegan way of life. Joaquin Phoenix recently led an animal equality protest in London urging people to switch to a vegan lifestyle, and successfully convinced the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to serve its first all-vegan menu at the Golden Globes in January 2020.
In ASEAN, Malaysian tycoon, Tan Sri Vincent Tan (who turned vegan four years ago), shared his strong beliefs about the health benefits of eating greens during the 9th Malaysian International Conference on Holistic Healing in Cancer in August 2019.
All in all, it is clear that plant-based diet habits are getting a lot of mind share (and possibly taking root), especially among the younger generations. This is consistent with the findings from our survey on diet habits among the Khor Reports network and friends: “Knives Out? A Nibble on Food and Diet Habits”. With new relevant terms such as flexitarians, i.e. a person that has a primarily vegetarian diet but still occasionally consumes meat, cropping up, it would be interesting to see how this vegan movement will develop in future.
But let’s not forget there are also negative social media conversations on vegans. There is also research suggesting that plant-based diets may not be as environmentally beneficial or health friendly as it may seem—meat-alternatives, for example, have been criticised to be heavily processed and containing high levels of salts, while nutritionist Dr Graeme Coles alleges that a plant-based diet emits the same amount of nitrogen as a meat-based diet. Moreover, in the UK, vegan activists are among the groups included on the UK’s counter-terror list (which seems surprising to many). Does this portend more contestation to come as farmer segments really start to worry? Does this indicate that some important folk reckon that plant-based is getting more than just flash-in-the-pan trendy?
(20 Feb 2020) Edited to include article from the Food Navigator on research suggesting that plant-based diets may not be as environmentally and health friendly.
The China-Malaysia Trade Relationship in 2019
So here’s a quite take on the China-Malaysia bilateral trade relationship in 2019. Official data was readily at hand for information 11 months of 2019.
The trade picture shows:
1) Malaysia closely involved with China’s supply-chain (high export and imports) for electrical machinery, optical & other equipment, machinery and appliances.
2) Mineral fuel & oils and plastics & articles are top import and export items.
3) Malaysia homegrown export items are palm oil (fats & oils; and also as soap-detergent intermediate products), rubber & articles (think of rubber gloves, rather important in the coronavirus outbreak), fish & crustacean; as well as various minerals like bauxite (including from Pahang).
4) 12% of Malaysia palm oil to China. 33% of fish & crustaceans and also 33% of the fruit segment (including durians) went to China.
5) As for Malaysia’s food imports from China, this amounted to USD1.45b or 12% of the total food import bill. The top 10 food & beverage related products from China were: vegetables, roots & tubers; fish & crustaceans; coffee, tea; fruit & nuts; fats & oils; misc. food preparations; veg, fruit & nut preparations; oil seeds; sugar & confectionery; and meat & fish preparations.
6) Broadly, Malaysia has higher reliance on China for more import items than it relies on China as an export market; the red line for % reliance on China on the upper exports chart is mostly lower than it is in the lower imports chart.
Correction: Bottom graphic updated for text on ratio of exports
A Thorny Conundrum: A Case of the Coronovirus and the Durian Economy
The coronavirus outbreak has stymied the durian economy. Demand for the king of fruits has dipped dramatically amidst widespread city lock-downs and logistics disruptions in China, resulting in durian prices falling by as much as 50%—traders in Raub reported that prices for the Musang King has reduced from RM60 to RM30 per kg. The durian tourism industry has also been hit hard, especially following Malaysia’s temporary travel ban on Chinese nationals from all provinces currently under lock-down.
Unsurprisingly, farmers are becoming wary about processing their durian crops to China, and are beginning to look for alternatives locally and in Singapore. Their hesitance is justifiable—as explained in our previous post on the durian economy (see image below), China is expected to import from Malaysia USD120 million worth of durians annually, with approximately 23% of Malaysia premium-grade output exported, amounting to 75,000 tonnes to China in 2018. Overall, Malaysia reports RM173.3 million (about USD41.9 million) worth of durians in 3Q2019 exported around the globe, the highest quarter of recorded since 2015.
The drastic slowdown in durian imports from China would mean a lot of unwanted durians left in the traders’ storage. Overall trade with China in containers is down 20% or more in recent weeks and some may be affected by about 50% of airfreight volume supply cancelled (and expectations of elevated air freight rising significantly*).
There is some sliver of hope, however. CNA pointed out that the decreased demand in China was due to the outbreak itself—interest in the prickly fruit is still there, albeit just not the right time for a hearty durian meal. The Pahang Fruit Farmers’ Association has expressed optimism that the outbreak could be contained by the time the durian peak season (April to August 2020) comes around.
Until then, the Malaysian durian farmers (together with other fruits farmers in Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam and beyond) will have to continue to keep calm and carry on, at least until the storm of the coronavirus blows over.
Check out Khor Reports’ Durians for China: A Preliminary View and Dashboard.
*Loadstar.com in its article ”The calm before the 'supply chain storm' when China's air freight rates soar,” points to 300-400% rise in airfreight rates once production is back on full and “before belly traffic returns to the country.”
Screenshot from Khor Reports’ Durian Economy map
Harder and Harder to Breathe: Burning Landfills and Week-Long Fires
Remember our post on the air pollution problem in Kedah? Unfortunately, there are more news of smokey conundrums in Malaysia’s rice bowl state: a fire broke out at a rubbish dump in Jitra on 1st February 2020.
This wasn’t the first rubbish dump to go up in blazes in Kedah—a landfill in Bedong, Sungai Petani was similarly caught on fire on 20 January 2020, with firefighters struggling for more 18 hours to put out most of the flames, a task made more difficult since most of the burning waste was plastic. A week later, the fire brigade was still working to control the damage caused by the smouldering waste.
It’s disheartening to continue receiving such updates; late last year, we published a post on the air pollution issue at Cinta Sayang, Kedah, a problem that appears to be primarily due to open burning of waste plastic at processing sites, which in turn adversely affects the quality of life for residents in the area, especially health-wise. While merely a preliminary view, do give the post a read—it provides an insight as to how serious the situation has gotten and how important it is to solve it (although nobody should need any further convincing at this rate, to be perfectly honest).
#KhorReports #airpollution #wasteplastic #wasteplasticburning
You are What You Eat: The Vegan-Social Media Map
Continuing our foray into diet trends, here's a snippet about the subject of veganism on social media in the Southeast Asian region.
We also have preliminary findings on food and diet habits, which seems to be on the rise especially among young professionals. Click here to read about it.
#KhorReports #vegan #diet #SoutheastAsia
Bloomberg: $1.4 Billion of Palm Oil Is in the Crossfire as Mahathir Angers India
About a week ago, Khor Reports was again asked to give its comments on the hot issue of the India-Malaysia trade spat, this time to Bloomberg. Tensions had been escalating since Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s comment on Kashmir at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2019, which impacted palm trade between the two countries.
If India’s refined imports from the nation drops from about 2.6 million tons a year to reach to 2018 levels, about 2 million tons of Malaysian processed products worth RM5.71 billion may need new buyers, said Khor Yu Leng, an independent economist with Segi Enam Advisors, who has published papers on Malaysia’s political economy.
Click here to read the whole news article.
To read about the background behind the trade kerfuffle between India and Malaysia, click here.