PASB's Estates Department is unique in that its team of experienced visiting agents (VAs) monitor the day to day progress and performance of the estates under their respective charge, in addition to their responsibilities for making regular visits of inspection to the estates and compiling comprehensive reports on them. This system reduces any communication gap between the field and the boardroom to a minimum as the executive who has personally inspected the estate in detail is the one who submits report directly to the company's Board of Directors.   



This has been a long established and well proven system and all VAs are highly qualified and experienced senior executives and planters in their own right. PASB selects these people with the utmost care, fully realising that this is essential in order to ensure and maintain the high standards expected by clients, and those on which PASB's sound reputation has been built up over the past 45 years. With such an effective established system and through the tireless efforts of VAs, the foundations for prosperity and progress of many plantation companies within PASB have been formulated.
 

Companies which started with just one estate run by PASB and which now have sufficient acreage to justify their own Estate Departments include:-

1. Austral Amalgamated
2. Taiko Plantations
3. Asiatic Development
4. Loh Boon Siew Group
5. RGA/AAA/Indosawit

  

Companies largely involved in other spheres and having estates which are managed by PASB include:-

1. Barkath Group
2. Naza Motors Group
3. Syed Kechik Group
4. National Land Finance Co-operative Society Ltd.
5. V.K. Kalyanasundram Sdn Bhd
6. Maika Holdings Bhd.
7. Comsa Farms Bhd.

 

Individual VAs with PASB's Estates Department are also well qualified to prepare feasibility studies for any tropical agricultural projects and also carry out inspections of estates on behalf of prospective purchasers.

Dissemination of information for the benefit of the industry and plantation companies is also an integral part of the Estates Department's responsibilities. In order to achieve this, plantation companies are represented by PASB executives in the national councils and committees which form the decision making bodies of the industry. These include:-

1. Council of the Malayan Agricultural Producers' Association (MAPA)
2. Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOA)

The senior executives spend a great deal of time evaluating proposals for the sale of estates or the development of new ones, for the profitable expansion of their principals' planted acreage.
 
 

2. Palm Oil Mills / Rubber Factories

The company has organised the construction of several palm oil mills and rubber factories located in different parts of the country and has taken over their management. The company's strength in this area is its ability to utilise the latest improvements offered by a range of consultants and it has a free choice of designers, machinery suppliers and construction companies.

Where mill management is concerned, the company is well qualified to locate sources of fruit intake, and, of course, is able to market the produce with a free choice of outlets, not being involved directly with any refinery. In many respects, the company provides management services to the mills similar to those of the estates.