Amid higher demand, govt plans to open palm oil council office in Saudi Arabia

KUALA LUMPUR – The government plans to open a Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) office in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to expand the country’s palm oil market to Africa and the Middle East.

Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali said the MPOC office in Jeddah would be a marketing hub after receiving new requests from Kenya, Ethiopia and the Middle East.

“I have had discussions with the Saudi Arabian embassy earlier…as such, we need to campaign to spread the benefits and advantages of Malaysian palm oil so that all parties can know the quality of our premium palm oil,” he told Bernama yesterday.

At the same time, he said there was an increase in demand for palm oil from Saudi Arabia for the production of hand sanitisers and soap due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

He said the palm oil industry has a very bright future because it is not only used as cooking oil but also in the pharmaceutical industry at home and abroad.

Therefore, he said, the ministry will launch a virtual campaign today to promote the sustainability of the Malaysian palm oil industry.

“This campaign also aims to repel anti-palm oil campaigns that aim to tarnish the image of palm oil and challenge public perception on it,” he explained.

Khairuddin said the palm oil industry had contributed RM72.8 billion in national revenue through the export of palm oil and its products to the international market last year.

“This amount is much higher, about 14.18% more than the RM63.73 billion recorded in 2019 and the highest since 2017 (RM77.9 billion),” he said.

On the issue of discrimination on palm oil by the European Union and the United States, he said Malaysia had adopted the dispute mechanism and brought the EU to arbitration with the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

“We have submitted the case on January 15, 2021, while Indonesia had also done the same in 2019.

“We have brought this issue to the WTO and are waiting for the meeting in Geneva which will take place this April,” he added. – Bernama, February 10, 2021