Malaysia, Switzerland to set up expert committee on palm oil

BERNE: The Ministry of Primary Industries, Malaysia and the Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (EAER) will form a special joint committee comprising experts from both nations, to cooperate in issues relating to palm oil.

This was agreed upon during a meeting here between Malaysia’s Minister of Primary Industries Teresa Kok, and Federal Councillor of the Swiss Confederation Johann Schneider-Ammann, who is head of the EAER on Monday.

The special expert committee will explore palm oil related opportunities towards sustainability, bilateral trade, exchange of relevant scientific technologies and possible collaboration in downstream palm oil industry applications.

The ministers agreed that this would go a long way towards addressing the many negative sentiments associated with palm oil in Switzerland and an important tool to assure local Swiss rapeseed farmers that imported palm oil will not pose a threat to their livelihood in the future.

Kok was satisfied that the bilateral meeting will ensure continued export of palm oil to Switzerland and could even help attract direct Swiss investments through technology providers for various palm oil downstream activities.

The meeting was held at a crucial time since on Sept 25, the upper house of the Swiss Parliament narrowly defeated a motion to restrict importation of palm oil and its applications into Switzerland.

The Swiss motion was triggered by concern that palm oil was produced unsustainably while contributing to deforestation. Such misinformation propagated by a strong NGO anti-palm oil campaign had succeeded in creating a major negative perception around palm oil.