MEDIA STATEMENT
MALAYSIA PLEDGES TO HELP INDIA MEET ITS PALM OIL DEMAND
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1. MALAYSIA is prepared to fulfil India’s demand for palm oil in view of potentially erratic supply from Indonesia. This is considering that in less than one year, Indonesia's policy on palm oil export has created market uncertainties to major importing countries like India.

2. India is among the world’s largest palm oil user after Indonesia with a consumption level of 8.7 million tonnes in 2021 and 8 million tonnes alone in the first quarter of 2022. As stated by Indian Vegetable Oil Producers ’Association (IVPA) president Sudhakar Desai at the recent Malaysia International Agricommodity Expo and Summit (MIACES) 2022, Malaysia has kept its policy pertaining to palm oil trading in a stable manner, thus able to meet India's demand during the period of Indonesia’s ban on palm oil export.

3. Sudhakar was also quoted as saying that Malaysia's good supply chain played a crucial role in the edible oil security for India’s demand in the last two months. India’s faith in Malaysia – the world’s second largest palm oil producer after Indonesia – as a trusted supplier who can guarantee undisrupted supply has been further fortified by a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between IVPA and the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) at MIACES 2022.

4. Very broadly, the MOU aims to strengthen cooperation between India and Malaysia in the palm oil industry, enhance collaboration to promote the Indian palm oil industry, exchange information pertaining to sustainability efforts as well as research and development insofar as the golden crop is concerned.

5. Towards this end, I share the sentiment by IVPA president Sudhakar who is confident that both the association and MPOC are able to take up dynamic policy-related issues with respective policymakers for the benefit of the industry in both countries. At the moment, IVPA has estimated India’s palm oil imports from Malaysia to remain stable in the second half of 2022, making up about 55% of India’s total palm oil imports despite Indonesia’s move to accelerate palm oil exports in recent times.

6. In fact, IVPA further foresees a surge in demand to the 800,000 tonnes per month region for the next six months or an improvement of about 20% from the first half of 2022. India's optimism on Malaysian palm oil is a vote of confidence on our golden crop. We hope this will spur more non-traditional markets to start switching to palm oil, which has proven to be healthier and more sustainable compared with alternatives.

7. In this respect, the MPIC will step up efforts to promote Malaysian palm oil, not just in India but throughout the world, including non-traditional markets in line with the "The Global Movement to Champion the Goodness of Palm Oil" campaign.

DATUK HAJAH ZURAIDA KAMARUDDIN
MINISTER OF PLANTATION INDUSTRIES AND COMMODITITES
04 AUGUST 2022