KUALA LUMPUR: Crude palm oil (CPO) production is expected to improve by 4.9% to 19 million tonnes this year,from 18.12 million tonnes in 2021.
According to the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), this will result in palm oil stocks increasing 21.1% to 1.95 million tonnes, from 1.61 million tonnes in 2021.
“This is excellent news for industry players and market onlookers and shows Malaysia is prepared to meet the encouraging demand for palm oil from the market, including from Egypt and Qatar,“ said Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities, Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin.
She said palm oil price has been at the forefront of edible oil news since the Covid-19 pandemic started in 2020 and due to the ongoing conflict in Europe.
“The current price surge is driven by the outlook for the supply of substitute vegetable oils due to uncertainty over sunflower seed oil from Ukraine and Russia.
Tight supply from the producing countries has also impacted the global palm oil price,“ she said in a statement today.
Zuraida recently conducted missions to several countries this year to increase exports of Malaysian commodities, especially palm oil.
The countries visited are Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Egypt, and Qatar.
Malaysian companies also took part in these Ministerial missions to strengthen and re-establish bilateral relations and among the achievements are proposals to establish joint venture partnerships in India and Pakistan.
There were also proposals from Qatar and Egypt to invest with Malaysian companies and set up production facilities in Malaysia.
This is seen as a strategic move that will accelerate the commodities export to the regions.
The minister’s last Economic and Agricommodities Promotion Mission was to Egypt and Qatar from April 16 - 20.
“As part of MPIC’s initiatives to promote Malaysian Agri-commodity products, we held several round table discussions to help bridge trade promotional activities, business cooperation, and information exchange between governments and key players from within the industry, particularly for palm oil, rubber, and timber products,“ added Zuraida.
