“There is good and steady demand for our palm oil. In fact, palm oil prices have also surged,” Ghani said at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur on the sustainability of Malaysian palm oil.
India had increased import duties on all cooking oils by 20% last month to protect the interests of the domestic farmers. As a result, some Indian importers reportedly cancelled their import orders as the duty hike and increase in palm oil prices by Malaysia made the commodity more expensive.“Any cancellation of orders is just temporary because I believe that with 1.45 billion population, India will need a lot of edible oil,” said Ghani. “Increasing the import duty is the right of any government.”
India is the largest export market for Malaysia, while Malaysia is the second largest source of palm oil for India after Indonesia.
The minister also said that Malaysia has offered to help India in its efforts to increase oil palm cultivation. “During my meeting with the Indian agriculture minister two months ago, I told him that Malaysia will support India if it wants to embark on the palm oil transition. We will be able to support in terms of yield, seed, technology, etc., because we believe that the more people appreciate palm oil in the world the better it is for us,” he said.
Malaysia keen to have friendly relations with India
The Malaysian government is keen on having a special friendly relationship with India for its food security.
“We want to be good friends with India,” said Ghani. “We need a lot of rice and onion from India. We need a special relationship with India especially when it comes to food security.”
Malaysia is dependent on India for rice, and it had banned rice exports last year.
“India is an important country for Malaysia. We source a lot of our specialty rice, like basmati, from India. Recently the Indian agriculture minister approved 2 lakh tonnes of rice for Malaysia, which is very much needed here,” said Ghani.
(The journalist was in Kuala Lumpur at the invitation of the Malaysian Palm Oil Council)