The country is missing a golden opportunity to capitalise on high palm oil prices and could suffer more production losses due to a “severe” shortage of about 120,000 workers, the Malaysian Estate Owners’ Association (MEOA) told Reuters on Monday.

The world’s second-biggest palm oil producer has been struggling to harvest palm fruit due to a labour shortage exacerbated by its pandemic-related immigration restrictions.

Foreign workers, mostly from Indonesia, typically make up about 80 percent of...