Agrocommodity records 10.6 per cent growth in Jan-Nov

KUALA LUMPUR: The agrocommodity sector recorded RM169.2 billion in trade value for the first 11 months of last year, up 10.6 per cent against RM153 billion in the same period in 2019.

Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Dr Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali said up to November 2020, agri-commodity product export earnings amounted to RM133.2 billion, or 15.1 per cent of the country’s total export earnings, due to positive growth throughout the 11month period.

“This was an increase of 13.6 per cent over the RM117.2 billion recorded in the preceding year’s corresponding period. The improvement was due to an increase in the price of the main agro-commodity, the average price of crude palm oil, as well as significant demand for rubber-based products,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Mohd Khairuddin said palm-based products, which represented the biggest contributor at 48.6 per cent of total agro-commodity exports, registered a 4.8 per cent growth in exports to RM64.8 billion.

However, he said, the volume of palm-based product exports declined by 10.7 per cent to 23.9 million tonnes.

“The 100 per cent export duty exemption from July 1 to Dec 31, 2020, announced by the government on June 5 last year spurred global demand for palm oil and palm-based products.

“In addition, the five per cent import duty reduction under the Asean-India Free Trade Agreement (AIFTA) starting Jan 1, 2020, rejuvenated Malaysia’s palm oil exports to India,” he said.

Meanwhile, the export value of rubber products, which contributed 32 per cent to total agri-commodity product exports, jumped 50.5 per cent to RM42.6 billion during the same period, driven by latexbased products especially rubber gloves that recorded a whopping 92.4 per cent yearon-year (y-o-y) growth to RM30.6 billion from RM15.9 billion previously.

The export volume of rubber gloves also showed an increase of 28 per cent to 914,000 tonnes against 714,000 tonnes in the corresponding period in 2019, he said.

As for timber-based products, he said they contributed 14.9 per cent to exports of commodity goods but their export value slipped 3.3 per cent to RM19.8 billion.

“Cocoa product exports also recorded a decline to RM5.6 billion, down 6 per cent y-o-y. Pepper products experienced a similar situation, decreasing by 18.5 per cent from RM109 million in the same period in 2019,” he said.

Among the main agrocommodity product export markets was the United States, which witnessed a 46.9 per cent surge in export value to RM21.8 billion with rubber gloves recording the largest percentage rise of 73.6 per cent to RM10.2 billion. — Bernama

This was an increase of 13.6 per cent over the RM117.2 billion recorded in the preceding year’s corresponding period. Datuk Dr Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali