Palm oil imports by major African countries expected to rise
We can take, for example, the top 10 African countries to ensure that they will import more palm oil and related products, not just crude palm oil (CPO) but also other products such as tocotrienols and other high quality downstream products.
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia expects an increase in palm oil imports by major African countries such as Angola, Tanzania and Kenya, driven by the economic growth in the region.
Primary Industries Deputy Minister Datuk Seri Iskandar Mohd Akin said that Malaysia had been looking to the African market following the European Union’s proposal to ban palm oil-based biodiesel fuel.
“We can take, for example, the top 10 African countries to ensure that they will import more palm oil and related products, not just crude palm oil (CPO) but also other products such as tocotrienols and other high quality downstream products,” he said during the oral questionand-answer session at the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.
He said this in reply to a supplementary question from Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob ( BN- Bera) on whether the government had conducted a study on palm oil’s potential and export competitors in Africa, as the region is also among the producers of palm oil.
Iskandar said based on the latest data, exports from the African region had been encouraging, adding that between January and February, Malaysia’s palm oil exports to South Africa grew by 75 per cent compared with
Datuk Seri Iskandar Mohd Akin, Primary Industries Deputy Minister
the same period last year, while exports to Mozambique jumped by 93.5 per cent.
Meanwhile, the exports to Nigeria rose by 125 per cent in the same period.
He said various programmes were conducted in efforts to set up a new market in Africa, including an economic and investment mission to Egypt and Morocco in September last year and ties were established with several companies in both countries to market tocotrienol- based products.
As for the B20 biodiesel programme, he said several programmes had been arranged, including upgrading the mixing depot, conducting consultative sessions as well as field tests and providing input to policies such as the National Automotive Policy to be in line with the ministry’s vision and mission.
“Our challenge lies in upgrading the mixing depot as the depot is currently calibrated for B10, so when we talk about upgrading, it will require an increase in allocations and this is being looked into,” he said.
Iskandar said the B10 programme was able to stabilise the CPO price to an average of RM2,037 per tonne in January and RM2,122 per tonne in February compared with RM1,794.50 per tonne in December 2018.
In total, the B10 programme utilises 543,000 tonnes of palm oil annually. — Bernama