In a statement today, the Iran embassy said the country imported a total of 309,704 tonnes of palm oil from Malaysia between January and May this year, which marked a five-fold increase over the same period last year. It now targets an additional 650,000 tonnes this year.

“Iran is poised to continue increasing palm oil imports from Malaysia to reach one million tonnes and above annually in a bid to address the growing demand over the next few years,” the embassy said.

“This, however, requires better coordination and cooperation from the relevant ministries, government-linked companies, and agencies to further strengthen the bilateral ties towards a mutual goal.”

The embassy said that Iran is currently the largest importer of palm oil among countries in the Middle East.

It added that Iran aims to become Malaysia’s hub for the distribution of palm oil and palm oil-related products into the lucrative markets of West Asian and Central Asian nations bordering its country.

Iran noted that this would pave the way for more strategic bilateral trade ties between both nations.

In June, Malaysia overtook Indonesia to become the biggest crude palm oil exporter to India, the world’s largest importer of vegetable oil, with exports climbing to 2.42 million tonnes since November. Between November and March 2021, India bought 1.68 million tonnes of crude palm oil from Malaysia.

Last year, China was the largest importer of Malaysian palm oil at 2.731 million tonnes, followed by India (2.727 million tonnes), Netherlands (1.073 million tonnes) and Pakistan (1.004 million tonnes).