We’ve discussed demographics problems in the US, China, and Germany but the aging demographic problem isn’t limited to those countries. Finance Yahoo had a great article from Bloomberg on the plight of Malaysia’s labor environment. Despite a booming economy and very high demand for palm oil, it seems no one wants to do the hard work of harvesting the plants and oil and we can’t blame anyone for not wanting to spend long days in the hot sun doing back breaking work.
While high prices typically encourage planting and production of crops, output in No. 2 grower Malaysia slumped to a five-year low last year and planters say the main reason for that is the industry’s worst-ever shortage of workers. The inability to increase supply in response to rising prices goes to the heart of what’s driving palm oil to record highs. Output growth in top producer Indonesia is slowing too. This is important for global food inflation because the two countries account for more than 80% of world supplies, and consumption of the edible oil in everything from food, to detergent and fuel is expanding.
Bloomberg
All around the world, people are getting tired of being treated as slave labor in addition to people simply getting older throughout the world. Once again we are at a cross roads of tough choices ahead and companies dependent on slave-like labor that don’t adjust their business models won’t do well.
Stay tuned and stay solvent.