IF I were an ageing oil palm tree, I would rise each dawn like an old maestro – baton in hand, heart still full of rhythms once played, but muscles increasingly worn. When crude palm oil prices are high, my planters pat my trunk and say, “Hold on, old friend – your fruits are fetching a fine price.”Replanting is deferred, as short-term gains are chased in a market that feels generous today. An ageing oil palm is not a venerable oak growing wiser with time; it is a declining biomechanical unit governed by a biological clock. This interlocking web – ageing trees, labour shortages, mechanisation gaps and disease pressure – forms the inconvenient truth of the oil palm industry. The future of oil palm will not be decided by how long we hold on, but by how wisely - and how bravely - we choose to let go.

Source: The Star January 18, 2026 23:37 UTC