Businesses urged to support 'Love My Palm Oil' campaign

KUALA LUMPUR: The Primary Industries Ministry hopes to get more businesses on board its "Love My Palm Oil" campaign to strengthen support for the country's palm oil industry. 

Its Minister, Teresa Kok, said she wants to see the corporate players such as banks and even property developers rally behind the campaign to muffle outside voices that put it in a bad light. 

"I'm very happy that two developers have answered the call to include the "Love My Palm Oil" messaging in their promotion campaigns," she said. 

She said even Malaysians have been influenced by the supposed bad-press about palm oil, which has made them blind to the qualities of the commodity to the nation. 

"We need to educate our own people to appreciate our own commodity and our own product," she said. 

Kok said there had been ridiculous accusations hurled against the industry. 

Among them include accusations that palm oil plantations led to deforestation, which resulted in the displacement of endangered animals such as the orang utan. 

"How can they say this, if more than 52% of our land is still forests," she said at the Chin Hin Property Development Chinese New Year Open House. 

Meanwhile, Chin Hin Group Bhd Managing Director Chiau Haw Choon said the company would lend a hand in the effort. 

"We plan to include the message in our billboards near our development on the KL-Seremban highway," he said.