MPIC expects additional exports of 300,000 mt tonnes of processed palm oil to Greece, Balkan markets

Deputy Minister I Willie Mongin said this would make Turkey as the export hub for the markets.

He said the ministry has undertaken various promotional activities via the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) and Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) to improve the marketability of palm oil products to foreign countries.

"These promotional activities also involved cooperation with Malaysian embassies in Europe especially for matters that involved government-to-government relations as well as the involvement of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry in the aspect of marketing," he said in the Dewan Rakyat sitting here today.

He was replying to questions from Datuk Hasbullah Osman (BN-Gerik) related to the ministry's effort in improving the price of palm oil and efforts to expand its export market.

According to Mongin, the government faces several challenges to stabilise palm oil and rubber prices in the market due to many factors.

He said the price of the commodity is influenced by economic growth, demand, supply and stocks.

"The spread of COVID-19 has also affected the demand for agri-commodity products, leading to the fall in prices," he said.

Mongin said among the efforts undertaken by the ministry to stabilise palm oil and rubber exports are exempting export duty on crude palm oil, crude palm kernel oil and processed palm kernel oil until year-end.

Besides that, the ministry he said, had also increased the blending of palm oil biodiesel with petroleum biodiesel through the B20 Biodiesel Programme (20 per cent palm oil biodiesel and 80 per cent petroleum diesel) to help increase the domestic crude palm oil consumption.

"The implementation of this programme is expected to help increase the consumption of domestic palm oil to 1.06 tonnes compared to 534,000 tonnes under the B10 programme," he said.

He said the increase in domestic consumption would further boost demand, impacting positively the country's palm oil industry.

Other initiatives undertaken by the ministry to stabilise palm oil and rubber prices he added, include enhancing cooperation with other major rubber producing countries namely Thailand and Indonesia as well as exploring new export markets.