MPOB will continue to develop new palm oil technology
KAJANG: The Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) will not be complacent with its achievements in research and development (R&D), and will continue to engage stakeholders to obtain fresh technology and products.
Director-General Datuk Dr Ahmad Kushairi Din said the board was recognised globally as an institution for the palm oil industry and palm oil R&D.
“If we are complacent, we are not moving. Let fresh ideas come in, and we will have fresh products and technology.
“We have been engaging with the industry and receiving feedback on what it needs. The results will go back to the industry. We hope to boost those (new) ideas,” he told reporters at the MPOB Transfer of Technology Seminar and Exhibition 2018 here yesterday.
The two-day seminar was launched by Primary Industries Deputy Minister Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin.
Between 1995 and 2017, MPOB successfully launched 648 technologies and 174 services relevant to the oil palm industry, out of which 198 technologies were commercialised.
MPOB’s commercialisation rate of new technologies is 30 per cent compared with the national average of three to five per cent.
“Every year, we export about 90 per cent of our palm oil. We have some negative perception in the west, especially in the Europe, and that is why we have to move forward.
“If the new government can do better, it will benefit both the industry and the nation. We hope that R&D can be further enhanced,” Ahmad Kushairi added.
Palm oil is one of the main contributors of revenue in Malaysia, recording export revenue of RM78 billion in 2017.
In a separate development at the seminar launch, MPOB exchanged memoranda of agreement (MoA) with two companies on the transfer of technology for commercial is at ion.
One agreement was for technology licensing of supercritical fluid extraction in the production of palm phytonutrients concentrates from palm oil and its derivatives with Green G Gravity Sdn Bhd.
The second MoA was for the manufacturing of the fertiliser MPOB F5 Super with WDM Maju Trading Sdn Bhd. — Bernama