Plantation industries and commodities minister Zuraida Kamaruddin said palm oil, which accounted for RM108 billion of exports last year, remained the largest contributor.
Rubber and timber were next with RM71 billion and RM22.7 billion respectively.
Zuraida, who was speaking at the launch of the Malaysia International Agricommodity Expo and Summit (MIACES) today, said the RM209.5 billion recorded last year was a 38.4% increase from 2020, which recorded RM151 billion in exports.
She urged participants at the summit to explore new markets for their agricommodity products by taking the opportunity at the expo to showcase them.
She said the business-matching session had the potential to enable industry participants to collaborate at the international level.
This, she said, could open up the space for local agricommodity players to generate income and therefore help to increase gross domestic product.
Zuraida said MIACES would also serve as the platform to counter allegations of forced labour and sustainability issues in the agricommodity sector.
“The government will ensure that the welfare of the plantation workers are protected and that industry players comply with sustainability requirements as outlined in the National Agricommodity Policy 2021-2030.
“While our agricommodity products have been well received in the global market, the ministry is still facing challenges such as accusations of forced labour and sustainability issues from certain parties,” she said.
“These accusations are unfounded because several factors were not taken into account and there was no detailed investigation before action was taken against companies (accused of flouting the rules),” she added.
Zuraida said the objective of MIACES is to promote Malaysia as an international hub of the agricommodity sector to strengthen its position as a major producer of agricommodity products and showcase local innovation and technology at an international level.
“We also want to emphasise Malaysia’s efforts in ensuring sustainability in this sector and not as per the accusations of certain parties,” she said.
From January to May 2022, agricommodity exports recorded a total of RM87.6 billion, an increase of 2.7% compared with RM85.3 billion in the same period in 2021.