Contributed by SCAO Group Life Science BL Head Mr Takayuki Kanauchi

Union Harvest (M) Business

February 2020

Malaysia

Union Harvest (M) (UHM) is a fertiliser manufacturer in Malaysia who produces mainly for oil palm plantations.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Malaysian Government announced the “Movement Control Order (MCO)”, forcing all businesses other than “essential services” to close from 18 March to 31 March 2020. Thereafter the MCO was extended until 9 June.

Fortunately, oil palm plantation businesses (i.e. palm oil) and fertiliser businesses were categorised as “essential goods” and “essential goods supply chain” respectively by the government. As such, UHM’s business had not been affected significantly. On the other hand, many oil palm plantations voluntarily stopped operations due to health and safety concerns for workers.

Though delivery was slow to materialise, UHM secured tender awards in the first half of 2020 from oil palm plantations. Once the plantations resumed operations, we are catching up swiftly.

Malaysian oil palm plantation

Summit Rural (WA) Pty Ltd

March 2020

Australia

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused many uncertainties and pressures to the fertiliser industry. However Summit Rural (WA) Pty Ltd (SRWA) well managed their operations, services and procurement to meet the strong demand from farmers in March.

More rainfalls from the forecast, higher grain price attributed by the depreciation of Australian dollar recently and concerns of further lockdown due to Covid-19 led farmers to take more fertilisers earlier than usual. In total, SRWA dispatched 109,410mt in March, which is the latest record of March delivery in SRWA’s history.

As a result, SRWA’s performance exceeded the budget of FY2019.

In FY2020 till now, we can keep the momentum and there is no significant impact on fertiliser business. Simultaneously, government categorises fertiliser business as “essential business” to ensure our operation keep running amid Corvid-19.

Fertiliser factory of SRWA