by AZALEA AZUAR / pic TMR

THE Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities (MPIC) aims to support palm oil downstream players who want to solidify their presence overseas especially in China, in response to the increasing demand for cakes and bread in the republic.

According to Minister Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin, Malaysia’s bakery fats business in China’s bakery industry is small but she is confident that its market share will grow with the right promotion and marketing strategies.

“Although there are still sporadic lockdowns due to its zero-Covid policy, the gradual reopening of China’s borders to business travellers soon can serve as a good opportunity for Malaysian bakery’s fast players to build business contacts, thus riding on this growing opportunity,” Zuraida said in a statement.

She hoped that local shortening and margarine manufacturers should weigh in on the prospects of forging tie-ups with reputable bakery enterprises in China.

Chinese bakery-related companies grew from 2,040 to 6,395 during the 2017-2021 period with an average compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 33% while it stood at 2,815 in the first half of 2022.

Last year, a total of 6.14 billion yuan (RM3.98 billion) has been invested in this industry.

According to Zuraida, China has been importing 7,655 metric tonnes (MT) main raw material from Indonesia and Malaysia last year to meet its growing domestic consumption demands.

“On the same note, China’s margarine market is also growing rapidly with an annual growth rate of 20%. 

“The world’s most populous country — which is also the second largest global economy — mainly imports margarine from Indonesia, with 650MT coming from Malaysia in 2021, an increase of 10% from 590MT in 2020,” Zuraida added.

China’s bakery market has increased to 265.7 billion yuan from 187.7 billion yuan with an average CAGR of about 9%. This is higher than the global baking industry’s market size growth rate.

It is expected that the market size of China’s baked food industry will reach 287.4 billion yuan in 2022.

To complement palm oil downstream players who are interested in solidifying their overseas business presence, MPIC has embarked on The Global Movement to Champion the Goodness of Palm Oil campaign.

It is a platform to spark awareness about the high quality of Malaysian palm oil as well as to counter the various misinformation and false information levelled at the golden oil.