KUALA LUMPUR, April 27 — Malaysian palm oil still has a lot of potential to shine compared with its competitors such as soybean, rapeseed, olive and sunflower oil, says Minister of Primary Industries Teresa Kok Suh Sim.
She said, however, industry players big and small need to ensure that Malaysian palm oil is better than the other edible oils.
“We should follow all the rules and regulations including getting our plantations Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification.
“As at March 31, about 28 per cent of our plantations are MSPO-certified. We want to make sure that by next year, all palm oil exporters especially to the European Union (EU) are certified. This is our aim,” she said during a media briefing yesterday in conjunction with the one-year Pakatan Harapan anniversary.
Kok said the recently launched Love MY Palm Oil campaign came with the slogan ‘A Five-Star Malaysian Product’, and called on industry players to re-examine the way they handle their plantations.
“By managing our plantations well, we can automatically combat all the accusations against this industry, including deforestation, killing of wildlife and biodiversity loss.
“That is the reason why I went all the way to Sabah. I want to inspire all state governments and palm oil industry players to plant back one million forest trees throughout the country.
“I also met Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal to discuss how we can connect back the whole wildlife corridor so that the oil palm plantations can live in peace together with our wildlife. Let’s give back the forest to the wildlife,” she said.
Meanwhile, on the EU resolution and its proposal to ban palm oil into Europe, the minister acknowledged that it is going to be a “long-term battle”.
She said despite decades of addressing the issue, more engagements are needed between Malaysia and the EU political leaders.
“We still need to do lobbying and campaigning for palm oil. And knowing that in May there will be European Parliament elections and climate change, all these become political mileage for all the candidates that contest in the election.
“So it might be very difficult for us to ask them to defer or delay the delegated regulation, but the regulation will be reviewed in June 2021,” she said.
Asked on the potential loss in revenue from the loss of exports to the trading bloc due to the ban, the minister said there are no exact figures at this stage as it currently still imports Malaysian palm oil.
“They will slowly phase out the import volume by 2030,” she said.
Data from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board showed that last year, the country exported a total of 1.91 million tonnes of palm oil to the EU, down by four per cent from the 1.99 per cent tonnes recorded in 2017 and accounting for 12 per cent of Malaysia’s total 2018 palm oil exports.
The EU is the second largest buyer of Malaysian palm oil, after India.
Meanwhile China is the third bigger consumer followed by Pakistan, the Philippines, Turkey and the US. These top seven accounted for 9.31 million tonnes or 56.5 per cent of Malaysia’s total palm oil exports in 2018.
Malaysia is also aggressively seeking new markets and expanding the current market.
“Russia for example, has said that it is keen to buy more palm oil from Malaysia. So the Malaysian Palm Oil Council is already engaging with the Russian side. And two days ago my deputy minister Datuk Seri Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin was in Saudi Arabia for a palm oil trade seminar.
“The reaction from the Arabic business people towards palm oil was very encouraging and Mohamad Sabu, our Defence Minister, is going to Iran and Russia where he will also talk to them on Malaysian palm oil.
“So, basically our cabinet ministers, whatever ministries they are from, they too are going to be the spokespersons for palm oil.
“I really hope that by the mid-term of my service, I will be able to do what I pledged when I first took over this portfolio on July 2, 2018, and I hope we should have at least 200,000 trees (out of the target of one million), all our efforts put in for the MSPO certification give a positive outcome, and our palm oil mills come up with a premium grade oil to fend off all the accusations,” she said.
Kok and her ministry (including its agencies) have pledged to work on four key focus areas to ensure the commodity remains the country’s major contributor to export revenue.
They include improving service efficiency, especially by creating an investor-friendly approach, being business-friendly, and improving the wellbeing of the people (smallholders, manufacturers, labour force).
The ministry also pledged to strengthen the commodity market and promote the downstream industry. — Bernama
