KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s export earnings from palm oil and related products could reach the RM80 billion target this year compared with RM78.8 billion in 2017.
Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry Secretary-General Datuk K Yogeesvaran said this was on the back of aggressive marketing and promotional activities, including venturing into new markets such as Iran, the Philippines and Vietnam, as well as some African and Middle East countries.
“We also expect crude palm oil (CPO) futures prices to possibly increase to about RM2,700 per tonne in the second half of this year following a dip in production and the coming festive season,” he added.
He was speaking to reporters after attending a public forum entitled, “The Future of Malaysian Palm Oil: Integrating Independent Growers into the Global Supply Chain” here, today.
Currently, CPO futures prices range between RM2,380 to RM2,400 per tonne.
Meanwhile, on the issue of the European Parliament’s proposed palm oil ban in all European biofuels by 2020, Yogeesvaran said, engagements with European Union (EU) countries were on-going to remove it.
“We are also hoping that the next EU ‘trilogue’ negotiations or tripartite meetings, expected on May 17, would discuss the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) which includes palm oil,” he said.
The trilogue consists of the Council of the EU, European Commission and European Parliament.
Earlier, Yogeesvaran said that so far 2,500 independent smallholders had obtained the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification.
“Aggressive efforts are being taken to ensure that all 250,000 smallholders will be certified by end-2019. This also means that by the end of next year, we would have fully complied with the EU ruling to certify our palm oil industry for sustainability and good practices,” he added. — Bernama
