Two-pronged strategy to strengthen M’sian palm product export market — Minister

ALOR GAJAH: The government will adopt a two-pronged strategic approach in strengthening the palm oil export market in the Asian region as well as addressing the issue of anti-palm oil campaign sentiment by the European Union (EU).

Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin said the move would include strengthening the image and improving the quality of the country’s palm oil.

“We know that the sentiment campaign is an old issue to lower the yield of palm oil products because it is a competition for the product market.

“But to address that, our focus is also to explore new and bigger markets to ensure that Malaysia can become a leading exporting country in Asia,” she told reporters after presenting post-flood aid in Kampung Pengkalan here yesterday.

Zuraida said among the countries in focus were those in Central and South Asia such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, as they were the country’s main importers of palm oil.

“Our focus now is on the Middle East and South Asian importing countries that record high demand because they know that the palm oil products produced in this country are of high quality and healthy to use.

“This high demand factor is influenced by the way of life in the countries concerned which is based on food using cooking oil,” he said.

He added that the ministry was also targeting a 30 per cent increase in palm oil exports this year and believed it could be achieved based on last year’s positive increase, despite the pandemic situation that hit the world.

The value of Malaysia’s downstream palm oil and derivatives exports jumped 40 per cent to RM91.4 billion for the period of January to November 2021 from RM65.3 billion in the same period in 2020.