Carey Island

I spent Tuesday and Wednesday at Carey Island, which by the way is not exactly an island. It lies on the Straits of Malacca on one side and a river flows on the other two sides. But the river on one side hasn’t always gone all of the way through; many years ago there was a land linkage on one side. But for most of the history of the plantation the only access to the “island” was by ferry or other boat. In the mid 80’s a bridge was built allowing people to drive to Carey Island. The Sultan of Selangor granted an Englishman named Edward Valentine Carey the right to open up the island around 1899. Over the years the plantation has produced rubber, tea, coffee, coconuts, cocoa and oil palm. It is a very historic place.

I learned about palm oil production. This is a very interesting crop. Seedlings are planted when they are 12 months old. The first harvest is when they are 4 years old. Four to 10 years is considered young, 11 to 20 years are prime and over 20 years is considered old. The fruit bunches are harvested every 15 days. There is a picture below of harvest. The plantation is currently averaging 6.4 metric tons of oil per hectare per year. This is a much higher tonnage than other oil crops. From the plantation the bunches go to the mill where the oil is extracted. All of the parts of the bunch are used. The oil comes from the orange outside of the fruits but the internal kernel is also used. The kernel can be seen in the second picture below of the fruit bunch - a couple fruits got sliced open during harvest. The kernel is cracked like a nut and the external shell is used to fuel the boiler at the mill with any extra sold to other industries for use in their boilers. The inside of the kernel is processed into a different kind of oil. The empty bunch is returned to the field to decompose and provide nutrients to the trees. Each bunch is marked to show what field it came from and who harvested it. Harvesting the bunches at the correct stage of ripeness is important because premium quality oil with a fatty acid content of less than 1.2% can only be produced from perfectly ripe bunches. From the mill the oil goes to the refiner where the oil is refined to make it clear and odorless and processed into a number of different products. There is a huge demand for palm oil products right now because they are healthy and produce very crispy fried products. After the refiner, some of the oil can go to the biodiesel plant to be processed into fuel. Right now there is such a demand for palm oil food products that there isn’t very much palm oil being refined into biodiesel. I toured all of the different facilities along the supply chain. I should also mention that at the end of the palm oil trees productive life span which is over 25 years they are chopped up and returned to the soil to provide nutrients for the next crop of trees. This process in shown in the third picture below. They do not burn in Malaysia and most of the large palm oil companies around the world also do not burn. Only the very small producers in countries like Indonesia still burn. Also they use integrated pest management to control insects. There are certain beneficial insects that must be present to pollinate the bunches, also they plant flowering plants to attract other beneficial insects that then control the worms that attack the palms. They also use owls and hawks to control the rat population. Everything is done with a great respect for nature. Every part of the palm is used, there is no waste. This industry appears to be extremely sustainable. This plantation has been producing oil palm since the 1950’s, the mill has been in operation since 1966, the refinery started in 1977 and of course the latest addition is the biodiesel refinery. Oil palm can only be successfully grown seven degrees north and south of the equator. I know that there has been a lot of negative publicity about palm oil in the media lately but I think part of the reason for that is that this industry is making a lot of money right now. Just like the oil industry in the U.S., it is easy to pick on the companies that are making big profits.

All of the people I met on Carey Island were very nice and hospitable. On Tuesday afternoon they took me to visit the local indigenous people, the Mah Meri. These people have lived on the island since long before Mr. Carey was granted development rights by the Sultan. They were very isolated until quite recently but now their children attend school including high school on the plantation. They continue to preserve their culture. They are known for their handicrafts. The women weave the local grasses into many different shapes and the men are very talented woodcarvers. Below is a picture of the younger carver that we met. I bought both some of the woven products and a hand carved wooden mask. The wood they use is very hard and red in color similar to cherry. It comes from a mangrove tree that is very hard to find and actually Sime Darby the company that owns the plantation is doing research on reestablishing this tree on the island so the carvers will continue to have a supply of wood, unfortunately it is a very slow growing tree. After we left the village we went into the nearest town and bought a durian from a road side vendor. If you are not familiar with durian it is a very popular fruit in Southeast Asia and it has an unpleasant smell. Many westerners can’t eat it because of the smell. The one we tried didn’t have much odor and I am not particularly sensitive to smells. I liked the taste. There is a picture below to prove that I braved the dreaded durian. Later in the evening we went to a local Chinese seafood restaurant for dinner. This part of my visit was a very authentic experience. I felt very at home and welcome. I feel honored to have had this opportunity and recommend it to anyone who has a chance to visit Carey Island. They host international visitors quite often, including Presidents of countries. My lodging for Tuesday night is pictured below, it is now called the VIP Bungalow but historically it was the West Estate Manager’s Bungalow. It is just one of many Heritage Buildings that remain on the island.