KUALA LUMPUR, April 26 ― The government will step in if biofuel and palm oil prices increase significantly in the future, says Minister of Primary Industries Teresa Kok.

She said one of the measures the government may take if the prices continue to increase is reducing the blend of the biofuel, like what Indonesia has been doing.

"The problem with us now is that we have never implemented biofuel that seriously (unlike Indonesia). In the past, we went for B10, and now B5 for the industrial sector.

"If the biofuel price keeps going up, we can always reduce the blend, this is one of the ways to mitigate the price change. But at the moment, the difference in the prices (between biofuel and diesel) is 0.41 sen per litre, not even one sen," she told reporters after officiating the FMM-MPOB Seminar on Biodiesel (B7) Implementation in the Industrial Sector here today.

She said the price of B7 (a blend of 7.0 per cent palm methyl ester and 93 per cent petroleum diesel) is volatile just like petroleum diesel, adding the industry will realise that prices of biodiesel and fossil diesel would average out eventually. ― Bernama