Malaysia Propose Greater Cooperation To Improve Trade in Palm Oil and Other Commodities with Pakistan

KARACHI 11th January 2020 – Minister of Prime Industries, YB Teresa Kok was invited to deliver the keynote address at the 5th Pakistan Edible Oil Conference (PEOC) in Karachi on Friday and she and Advisor for Commerce, Textile, Industry & Production and Investment, Government of Pakistan, Mr. Abdul Razak Dawood, took the opportunity for a bilateral dialogue to explore various issues of common interest to both countries.

Abdul Razak Dawood encouraged Malaysia to consider instituting trading practices that could allow smoother passage of products from Pakistan to Malaysia. Pakistan is a net exporter of rice, fruits and other products that are required by Malaysia.

“On her part, Minister Teresa Kok highlighed that Medium Density Fibreborads (MDF) exporters from Sri Lanka enjoyed lower duties whereas Malasyia’s higher quality MDF were subjected to higher import tariffs” said Ministry of Prime Industries (MPI) in a press statement issued on Saturday.

The ministry also added that other product opportunities were also discussed and both leaders agreed to convey these matters to the concerned authorities in their respective countries so that solutions could be worked out to benefit better trade relations between Malaysia and Pakistan.

In her keynote adress at 5th Pakistan Edible Oil Conference (PEOC) , Teresa highlighted the importance of Pakistan as an end user of Malaysian palm oil and facilitated by the joint venture refinery between Malaysia and Pakistan in Port Qasim. She also described Pakistan as one of its most regular and dependable buyers of Malaysian palm oil and products.

“She emphasized that palm oil has the potential for higher uptake in Pakistan given that its local production of oils and fats meets only around 20% of its consumtion needs. It thus depends heavily on imports to meet growing domestic demand and consumption. Demand has been increasing at a rate of 4.5% per year for the past seven years, due to increasing population, income and consumer spending.” said MPI.

Palm oil is widely used for the manufacture of vanaspati (ghee) and it is also the preferred raw material for the food industry in Pakistan, especially for frying and in confectionery items.

In 2018, Pakistan imported 1.16 million Metric Tonne MT of palm oil from Malaysia valued at USD 0.83 billion (RM2.97 billion). Malaysian companies such as FGV, KLK and IOI have made investments in Pakistan, via joint ventures with Westbury Group since 1993.