Malaysia reclaims position as top exporter of palm oil to China

Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong press conference after launch palm oil economic review and outlook seminar 2017 at pullman kuala lumpur city centre yesterday.

TELUK INTAN: Malaysia has reclaimed its position as the world’s major exporter of palm oil to China, overtaking Indonesia with a growth of 53.6% in the last six months of last year. 

Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong said that the positive development also boosted the country’s palm oil export from 647.1 metric tonnes in the January-June 2016 period to 993.9 metric tonnes in the July-December 2016 period. 

“Malaysian palm oil imports into China declined about 50% in the January-June 2016 period compared with the same period in 2015. 

“In the January-June 2016 period, we only managed to export 647.1 metric tonnes (to China) against 1,256.9 metric tonnes by Indonesia. 

“Subsequently, we overtook Indonesia’s palm oil exports in the third and fourth quarters which saw their exports declining 21% to 993.2 metric tonnes,” he told reporters after visiting a 100-year-old resident in Jalan Woo Saik Hong in Teluk Intan on Friday.

He was accompanied by Minister Counselor of the Chinese Embassy to Malaysia Ma Jia. 

Mah attributed the increased exports of palm oil to China to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s visit to Beijing in early November last year. 

Meanwhile, Ma Jia hoped Malaysia would remain the major exporter of palm oil to China. - Bernama