Malaysia prepared to assist UK, Europe amid seed oil supply crisis
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is prepared to assist the UK and Europe over their impending edible seed oil supply crisis, said Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin.
She noted that the British press recently indicated the UK would run into a cooking oil crisis in weeks as the seed oil supply was choked due to the Russia-Ukraine war.
“We are deeply concerned over the state in the UK and Europe following the current situation between Russia and Ukraine. And therefore, should the UK and other European nations need our assistance, we are ready to assist with supplying edible palm oil or cooking oil for their domestic and manufacturing needs,” she said in a statement yesterday.
Zuraida said Malaysian palm oil sustainability fully adheres to the Malaysian Palm Oil Certification Council, which is based on the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil standards and consistent with the international Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil requirements.
“We see this as a humanitarian need as Russia and Ukraine jointly supply 70 per cent of sunflower cooking oil to the world,” she explained. Noting the anti-palm oil propaganda by some Western nations, she said: “While we do not condone this misleading protectionist and distorted propaganda, we still want to offer our assistance in these trying times.
“Malaysia is a caring, friendly nation; and because of that, we are more than willing to provide Malaysian palm oil full of goodness to these affected countries.”
The minister said that Malaysia has had a long battle against Western anti-palm oil propaganda, and it is time to put the situation to rest.
“We are ready to offer immediate assistance as we do not want to see any country suffer from a cooking oil supply crisis when Malaysia is one of the biggest palm oil producers in the world,” she added.