El Nino to strike harder, but palm oil price not seen to soar

El Nino worries: A woman harvests coffee at a farm in Son La, northwest of Hanoi, Vietnam. With El-Nino back in a big way, Vietnamese coffee growers are staring nervously at dwindling reservoirs. – Reuters

THE strongest El Nino in decades is expected to mess up everything – people, birds, crops, fish – and for Malaysia, a major impact will be reduction in palm oil output which will drive prices higher.

However, this time round, crude palm oil (CPO) price may be on a mild uptrend as demand expectation may limit the upside, said Danny Wong, CEO, Areca Capital, adding that the previous round of El Nino had pushed the CPO price to as high as RM3,000 per tonne.