Palm Oil Plantations Employ 4.42 Million Workers

Palm oil is one of the commodities that contributes the most to the country's foreign exchange earnings. Furthermore, the palm oil industry is a labor-intensive industry that absorbs a large number of workers. Increased production, along with the expansion of land, has driven an increase in the number of workers in the palm oil plantation sector.

Based on data from the Ministry of Agriculture, the number of workers in large palm oil plantations, both private and state-owned, reached 4.42 million workers (provisional figure) in 2018. This figure comprises 4.0 million (90.68%) workers in large private national palm oil plantations, 321,000 (7.26%) workers in large state-owned palm oil plantations, and 91,000 (2.07%) workers in large foreign-owned palm oil plantations. This number of workers does not include employees working in palm oil companies.

(Read Databoks: Where are the largest palm oil plantations in Indonesia?)

Central Kalimantan is the province with the highest number of palm oil plantation workers, reaching 756,000 people in 2018. This figure surpasses Riau with 609,000 workers and North Sumatra with 567,000 workers. It should be noted that Central Kalimantan recorded the largest forest and land fires that year, reaching 134,000 hectares.

(Read Databoks: 10 Provinces with the Largest Forest and Land Fires in 2019)