She said that CPO prices were expected to drop by the end of the year but this had occurred earlier as a result of Indonesia’s palm oil export ban and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

“The price of palm oil has not dropped to previous levels of RM2,500, but as expected, the norm would be between RM4,500 and RM5,000 a tonne and we are in that phase now.

“This is what I had expected, that the new norm would be between RM4,500 and RM5,000 a tonne.

“Nevertheless, palm oil producers are still enjoying high prices and they are still getting a high income,” she said.

The minister was speaking to reporters after a working visit to a “single origin” planting plot at a cocoa farm in Kampung Panchor here today.

CPO prices have been on a downward trend recently, falling from RM6,753.50 a tonne on June 7 to RM5,046.00 a tonne on June 22, a slide of 25.3%.

Zuraida said the government will not hesitate to withdraw or suspend the licences of cooking oil manufacturers if there was proof that they were selling the oil in 1kg polybags on the black market.

She said the government had allocated 60,000 tonnes of subsidised cooking oil for about 32 million people in the country.

“We have calculated that there are 32 million Malaysians and with 60,000 tonnes, each Malaysian will get at least 2kg of cooking oil a month. On average, a family would have 10kg a month,” she said.