PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia is consistently looking for new markets to promote palm oil while enhancing its existing markets with a focus on ASEAN countries this year, said chief executive officer of Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) Datuk Dr Kalyana Sundram.
He said the ASEAN countries had become the main concern with regards to palm oil as they are the major consumers of the commodity, namely for use in cooking and food products.
“Other than this, we are looking at new markets. Africa is an exciting market and last week we went to (current markets) Pakistan and Turkey,” he told reporters after a briefing on the upcoming Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries meeting here, today.
Pakistan and Malaysia, for example, have a long-standing palm oil trade relationship of more than 40 years.
As of November 2018, exports of Malaysian palm oil to Pakistan stood at 1.06 million tonnes valued at about US$650 million (RM2.67 billion).
The country is the top four buyers of palm oil and accounts for 6.1% of the total Malaysian palm oil exports and is the third largest importing country of Malaysian palm oil.
“We will develop this market for the long term... Things are all in place, it just takes time,” he stressed.
Kalyana added that both government agencies — the Malaysian Palm Oil Board and MPOC, have offices abroad to look after foreign countries’ demand for the commodity.
“For instance, we have an office located in Accra, the capital of Ghana, to look after all the South African countries, in Brussels for all the European countries and in Moscow, which takes care of Russia and Eastern Europe,” he said. — Bernama
