MALAYSIA is prepared to fulfil India’s demand for palm oil in view of potentially erratic supply from Indonesia, said Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin.

Zuraida said that based on the Indian Vegetable Oil Producers ’Association (IVPA) forecast, the country is expected to see a surge in demand to the 800,000 tonnes per month region for the next six months.

This translates to about 20% of demand from the first half of 2022 (1H22), said Zuraida. 

IVPA president Sudhakar Desai at the recent Malaysia International Agricommodity Expo and Summit (MIACES) 2022 said Malaysia has kept its policy pertaining to palm oil trading in a stable manner, thus is able to meet India’s demand during the period of Indonesia’s ban on palm oil export.

“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 to alternatives,” said Zuraida in a statement today.

“Desai 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,” she added.

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.

“Towards this end, I share the sentiment by IVPA president Desai 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 2H22, making up about 55% of India’s total palm oil imports despite Indonesia’s move to accelerate palm oil exports in recent times,” the minister added.

Meanwhile Reuters reported that Malaysia’s palm oil inventories at end-July likely jumped to the highest in eight months due to improving production and soaring imports.

Stockpiles in the world’s second-largest producer expanded 8.3% from June to 1.79 million tonnes, according to the median estimate of 11 traders and analysts polled by Reuters.

The news agency added that production also rose to its highest since November, up 2% to 1.58 million tonnes.

Exports gained 2.2% to 1.22 million tonnes while imports surged 35% to 80,000 tonnes. — TMR / pic TMR File