Abstract
The Colombian oil palm agroindustry has been consolidating as one of the main economic drivers of Colombian rural areas. At the same time, crude palm oil sells have been increasing gradually to the point that more than 50% of the Colombian production of cpo in 2018 reached international markets. Accordingly, many concerns arise on the competitiveness of Colombian palm oil agribusiness at external markets, since oil palm production costs in Colombia are higher than those of the Asian leaders, Malaysia and Indonesia, in terms of labor costs. This situation, along with the fact that no previous research study on this topic was identified, explain the relevance of estimating the share of labor costs on Colombian oil palm agroindustry production costs. From a methodological point of view, we gathered information from Colombian oil palm plantations related to crop activities, in terms of workers required, labor yield, frequency required and, prices (wages, inputs, machinery, tools and fuel). The goal was to estimate the share of labor activities on total costs.La agroindustria del aceite de palma se ha venido consolidando como una de las principales actividades económicas en las zonas rurales de Colombia. Al mismo tiempo, las ventas de aceite de palma crudo (apc) han ido aumentando gradualmente hasta el punto que en 2018 más del 50 % de la producción colombiana de apc alcanzó los mercados del exterior. En consecuencia, surgen muchas preocupaciones sobre la competitividad del apc colombiano en los mercados internacionales, puesto que, al comparar los costos de producción nacional contra los de los productores líderes a nivel internacional, Malasia e Indonesia, es evidente que los costos laborales colombianos son superiores a los de mano de obra de los líderes asiáticos.