Teresa Kok wants tour guides to become ambassadors for palm oil

IPOH: Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok (pic) hopes tour guides will become ambassadors for palm oil.

Kok said she had sent a letter to the Tourism Minister last week on the suggestion.

"I have spoken to the minister about it before as well, and unofficially he has agreed.

"I am hoping that the knowledge and benefits of palm oil will be inculcated into their (tour guides) training.

"Tourists listen to their guides, their recommendations, and thus we must educate them about the goodness of palm oil, so that the message is passed forward," she told reporters after a briefing by healthcare and pharmaceutical company Hovid Bhd at a hotel here Friday (June 14).

Earlier, she had visited the company's plant in Chemor, near here.

Among those present were Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) chief executive officer Datuk Dr Kalyana Sundram, and Hovid's managing director David Ho Sue San.

Dr Kalyana hoped the ministry would assist in putting forward positive messages on palm oil.

"When tourists come, they will definitely eat Malaysian food cooked in palm oil, and we need the guides to help counter the anti-palm oil campaigns in Western countries.

"We need to train them, and provide them with the correct facts, so that they can provide it to tourists," he added.

Kok added that not many Malaysians are aware of the nutritional values of palm oil.

"We need to shed the image that palm oil is a low quality oil.

"Thus we have to keep on stressing on the nutrition value, and also the fact it can help prevent certain diseases," she added.

Kok also hoped the government would provide research grants to study the benefits of the nutritional value of palm oil.

She said this was required to combat the anti-palm oil campaign initiated by competitors from the western countries.

"We will submit the request for the grants especially for the study on the beta carotene and tocotrienol, components found in vitamin E," she added.

She said it would also be a good idea to get researchers from foreign universities to conduct a joint research.

"This will allow us to enter into their market easily in the future," she added.