Malaysia strives to maintain palm oil industry’s growth in 2022

Kuala Lumpur (VNA) – Malaysia’s palm oil industry is expected to maintain its 2021 performance this year backed by various marketing and promotional efforts to be conducted by the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities and its agencies.

Minister Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin said at a seminar on January 5 that she is optimistic that the industry would be able to achieve its goal with palm oil production likely reaching about 20 million tonnes.

Zuraida said last year’s successes and accomplishments were accompanied by new challenges. Due to the global shutdown of borders as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, obtaining foreign labour has become difficult, she said.

Palm oil production was severely impacted since the plantation worker shortfall, estimated at 75,000, causing harvesting activities to be delayed and lowering the quality of the fruit bunches harvested, she added.

The minister said to overcome this problem, the government has agreed to employ 32,000 foreign workers with strict compliance with the outlined SOP.

She said despite similar obstacles that the industry might face this year, industrial players are optimistic that they would be able to meet the production level for this year to cater for the current market like India and China as well as supporting the government’s ambition to penetrate new markets.

Meanwhile, the minister said 2022 would also be a year for the ministry to strengthen its promotional efforts for the global recognition of the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) as Malaysia’s sustainability standard.

As of November 2021, the total exports of Malaysian palm oil and its derivatives stood at 22.14 million tonnes and due to high palm oil prices, the total revenue increased by 40 percent to 91.4 billion RM (21.8 billion USD) compared with 2020./.