“We will step up efforts to promote Malaysian palm oil, not just in India but throughout the world, including the non-traditional markets in line with the global movement to champion the goodness of palm oil campaign,” she said in a statement today.
The shortfall in supply has been attributed to the changes in Indonesia’s palm oil export policy, which has created uncertainty for major importing countries, including India.
Citing a statement by Indian Vegetable Oil Producers’ Association (IVPA) president Sudhakar Desai, Zuraida said Malaysia has been consistent with its palm oil trading policy, and this will enable the country to meet the demand from India when Indonesia bans exports.
She noted that Sudhakar had also singled out Malaysia’s good supply chain as a factor that had played a crucial role in ensuring edible oil security in India in the last two months.
India’s faith in Malaysia as the world’s second-largest palm oil producer and as a trusted supplier has been further fortified by a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between IVPA and the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) at the Malaysia International Agricommodity Expo and Summit 2022 recently.
The objective as laid out in the MoU is 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 in palm oil research and development.
“Towards this end, I share Sudhakar’s sentiment that both the IVPA and MPOC are able to take up dynamic policy-related issues with their respective policymakers for the benefit of the industry in both countries,” she said.
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.
It was reported that 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.