Archived News

KUALA LUMPUR (March 27 2003) : Malaysian palm oil futures climbed at theend of a choppy day on Wednesday, lifted by refiner covering and atechnical rebound, traders said.

HAMBURG (March 26 2003) : Global palm oil prices are expected to rise inthe next three to four months but are likely to weaken afterwards ifweather in producing countries is good, Hamburg-based newsletter Oil Worldsaid.

BUCHAREST (March 27 2003) : Prolonged freezing temperatures this winterhave affected Romania's rapeseed and barley crops and farmers fear thatthe sector's chronic shortage of funds might dent hopes for a good wheatharvest.

CHICAGO (March 27 2003) - The Bush administration has asked Congress for$320 million in additional funds to buy emergency food for Iraq, includinghigh-protein peas and beans and vegetable oils, US Agency forInternational Development Administrator Andrew Natsios said on Tuesday.

26 March, 2003 - MALAYSIA denies it will soon impose tax on exports ofcrude palm oil (CPO) to India as a retaliatory move against the latter’ssupport for soyabean oil.Primary Industries Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik said that Malaysiais in no position to slap such a tax and does not see the country gainingfrom such a move.“I never said Malaysia will retaliate by imposing tax. What I said wasMalaysia will make representations to India to address the discriminatoryduties that India imposes on palm oil compared to soyabean,” Dr Lim toldreporters in Bangi yesterday.Dr Lim was commenting on an India-based newspaper report last week, whichquoted him as saying that Malaysia would slap the duty if India continuedto impose a higher tariff on palm oil imports than for soyabean oil.“The report is far from the truth. I was merely explaining the situationon the discriminatory tariffs, but the issue was sensationalised by theforeign reporters at a press conference last week,” he said.The minister had earlier launched two seminars on Livestock and CropIntegration with Oil Palm and Progress of Porim Series One and TwoPlanting Materials and Release of Elite Germplasm to the Industry.India currently imposes a 65 per cent duty on CPO and a 45 per cent dutyon crude soyabean oil. Processed palm oil carries a duty of 92.4 per cent,and processed soya 50.8 per cent.Malaysia has been pushing for the subcontinent to lower the palm oil dutyto be at par with that for soyabean for the past three years.It is understood that India refuses to relent to Malaysia’s request as ithas to protect the interest of its edible oil farmers as well as to pleasethe soyabean oil producers who are mostly US-linked.Malaysia imposes a minimal export tax on CPO to all countries based on agraduated scale in tandem with current market prices. It can range from aslow as 7 per cent to a high of 30 per cent.However, Dr Lim said Malaysia may need to take another look at its policyon exporting CPO to India as well as other countries as it will affectMalaysian refiners and dampen downstream-related activities.“Malaysia will take another look at its strategies and synergies becausewe cannot go on exporting too much CPO to India and later on buy backprocessed palm oil products from India, which will make Malaysia alaughing stock.”He added that Malaysia will also discuss with Indonesia how it can worktogether to limit CPO exports and boost downstream activities.Dr Lim said to date, palm oil exports and shipping rates to West Asia havenot been affected by the US-Iraq war.“So far so good... my ministry is monitoring the situation on a dailybasis and I will let you know if there are any problems,” he said.India is the world’s largest consumer and buyer of the world’s edible oilswith a demand of 3.5 million tonnes a year, of which 50 per cent, or 1.7million tonnes, is supplied by Malaysia.India has been Malaysia’s biggest palm oil buyer for the past severalyears before it dropped to second spot last year, buying only 1.6 milliontonnes compared with two million tonnes in 2001.

BANGI, March 25 (Bernama) -- Malaysia has to restrategise its duty freecrude palm oil export to India in the future, Primary Industries Minister,Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik said here Tuesday.He said India was a big buyer with 3.5 million tonnes of palm oil annuallyof which 50 percent came from Malaysia."We have not been happy with the discriminatory tariffs that had beenimposed on palm oil as compared to soyabean oil," he said.Currently, the tariffs imposed on crude palm oil is 65 percent while crudesoyabean oil is 45 percent.Tariffs for process palm oil is 92.4 percent while process soyabean oil is50.8 percent.Dr Lim said Malaysia had been taking up this issue for the last threeyears without much headway."There is a huge difference between process and crude palm oil which is 27percent as compared with crude and process soyabean oil which is only fivepercent," he told reporters after launching the 2nd National Seminar onLivestock and Crop Integration (LCI) with Oil Palm and Seminar on Progressof PS1 and PS2 Planting Materials and Release of Elite Germsplasm to theIndustry here Tuesday.The seminar was organised by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB).Dr Lim said the buyers of India would want only to import palm oil in thecrude form because of the huge difference in tariffs."They will then do their own refining and refractionating in Indiaitself," he said.Voicing concern, Dr Lim said Malaysia could not continue supplying crudepalm oil to India as one day Malaysia might be the importer of palmproducts from the India.He said Malaysia had all the downstream industries in Malaysia and itwould be unthinkable if it had to buy back palm oil products from thecountry.Dr Lim said efforts to restrategise did not mean that Malaysia wasretaliating against the Indian government as reported recently in theIndian newspaper.Refuting such claims, Dr Lim said Malaysia was not in the position to takesuch actions."We will make a representation to the Indian government to reduce thetariff discrimination between crude palm oil and soyabean oil," he said."To restrategise our crude palm oil, we will also discuss the matter withour Indonesian counterparts and our exporters here," Dr Lim said.He said he would be talking to both parties when the time was right.Dr Lim urged smallholders and those in estates and land schemes underFelda, Felcra, Risda (Rubber Industry Smallholders's DevelopmentAuthority) to adopt new methods of farming - the integrated farming aswell as the use of new clones in order to stay competitive.He said this was very important for the future of the palm oil industry.If not, he said the industry would end up like rubber.Dr Lim said therefore the seminars were timely and appropriate as theywere aimed at integration of farming activities with palm oil and adoptionof new planting materials.He cited Indonesia having newer cultivated areas and lower labour costwhile Malaysia has old cultivated areas and higher labour cost but newertechnology.Dr Lim said Malaysian palm oil producers should adopt new technologies toreduce production cost to remain competitive.MPOB chairman, Tan Sri Basir Ismail said that he would discuss further inthe second seminar details the various technical aspects of the LCI."This will be supplemented with information on the management, husbandry,economics, business incentives, financial and marketing," he added. --BERNAMA

SHANGHAI (March 20 2003) : China's Agriculture Ministry said on Wednesdayit has issued eagerly awaited permits for imports of Brazilian soyabeans,resolving a thorny issue which briefly hampered bilateral trade worthabout $600 million.

ISLAMABAD (March 20 2003) : Ghee/cooking oil prices have gone-up by Rs 15per 16 kg tin/ Rs 1 per litre in open market due to shortage as moreupcountry industries shut down after running out of palm oil stocks.

KUALA LUMPUR (March 20 2003) : India's edible oil imports may rise 6.3percent on the year to 4.71 million tonnes in the year to October 2003 dueto falling domestic output, an industry official said on Wednesday.

KUALA LUMPUR (March 20 2003) : Malaysia's palm oil futures prices may fallsharply if war erupts in Iraq because of higher shipment charges affectingdemand, while the world's top producers are stepping up output, anIndonesian industry official said on Tuesday.

KUALA LUMPUR (March 20 2003) : Malaysia's crude palm oil futures arelikely to fall to 1,100 ringgit ($289) a tonne by September due to risingdomestic stocks and the arrival of South American soya crop, a leadingIndian trader said on Wednesday.

20 March, 2003 - MALAYSIA’S palm oil prices are seen to average at betweenRM1,300 and RM1,500 a tonne this year on steady demand and supplies of thecommodity worldwide.