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TopIntroduction
In response to the global pandemic, governments worldwide have adopted emergency laws and other measures that are purported to limit contagion, but that also restrict rights and constrain civic space. In Malaysia, the Movement Control Order (MCO) has been imposed numerous times due to the continuous spike in Covid-19 cases under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 and the Police Act 1967.
Given this context, the author is addressing the following issues in the article:
Predominantly, a public-private partnership must be established as a short-term solution to facilitate financial assistance in order to sustain survival needs during the disruption. The long-term solution should be establishing concrete policy development for crisis management within the governmental sector. As a preventive measure, these capabilities should be embedded into tertiary education and it should be a pre-requisite for specific governmental departments.
TopBackground
This pandemic has not only affected large businesses, but also small players in the agricultural sector such as the stakeholders within the Palm Oil supply chain. To understand the challenges that small scale marginal farmers and upstream intermediaries face, the Center for Sustainable Smallowners (CSS) under The Malaysia Institute for Supply Chain Innovation (MISI) had conducted remote interview sessions with these actors of the upstream supply chain to understand the challenges of doing business during the MCO period. The supply chain in the palm oil industry consists of many businesses from the upstream Fresh Fruit Bunch (FFB) growers to the downstream Oleo chemical manufacturer. These businesses are interlinked together across the value chain, as shown in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1. Palm oil value chain (CSVN,2016)
In this study, the dealers are also known as traders and official account holders under a particular supply network that supplies consistent volume to Palm Oil Mills. This consistent supply is enabled through a network of Collection centers (CC) under his/her control.
Figure 2 shows that while the dealer is central to the information and money flow, the physical flow of FFB happens directly from the collection centers to the mills. Dealers do act as an intermediary between the seller and buyer. Their value-add within the upstream supply chain is critical and his/her influence is vital for the continuity of the upstream supply chain (Ratnam.M, 2020).
Figure 2. Palm oil upstream supply chain (CSVN,2016)
Collection centers, on the other hand, are generally managed or owned by the dealers'/traders’ network. The main function of a CC is an aggregation point of FFB supplied by smallholders and small growers within a certain radius of their center. A typical collection center works with a few hundred of ISHFs.
One key stakeholder interviewed is the Dealer or account holder to the Palm Oil Mills (POM). These individuals are industry veterans and have been loyal account holders to various POMs in that region. Based on the interview, at the initial stage, transporting Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFB) to the mills has been challenging for the Dealers despite the palm oil industry being considered an essential services industry.