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Malaysian palm oil futures fell over 1 percent on Thursday, charting a second straight session of declines, on weaker related edible oils and bearish market outlook on palm prices and inventory levels

From a humble beginning in the 1960s, the Malaysian palm oil industry has transformed to become one of the key contributors to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), foreign exchange earnings and employment opportunities

There is slight optimism that palm oil would trade between RM2,200 and RM2,500 per tonne, as analysts see higher global biodiesel consumption across Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Colombia.

Malaysia rejects the European Commission (EC) classifying palm oil as a high indirect land-use change (ILUC) risk and unjustifybly exclusing palm oil from the EU's Renewable Energy Directive II (REDII) mandate.

Malaysian palm oil futures are set to rise to trade between 2,350 ringgit and 2,450 ringgit ($574-$599) a tonne in four to six months, leading industry analyst Thomas Mielke said.

The Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) has expressed alarm over the operation of palm oil processors in coconut-producing Eastern Visayas region.

Hong Leong Investment Bank Research (HLIB Research) has downgraded its rating on the plantation sector to 'underweight', from 'neutral', following a subdued crude palm oil (CPO) price outlook for 2019.

Speakers at the three-day Palm and Lauric Oils Conference 2019 in Kuala Lumpur (POC2019) generally painted a rosy outlook for crude palm oil (CPO) price.

Plantation sector, Maintain underweight on respective sectors: The recently concluded corporate earnings season was unsatisfactory, in our opinion. Among 12 plantation companies under our coverage, only one beat our expectation, namely Sarawak Plantation Bhd (SPB). A total of six companies missed our earnings targets, whilst five companies came in within our expectation

The palm oil industry still has ample ways of boosting production despite the proposed cap on total oil palm planted area at about 6.5 million hectares, said industry expert Tan Sri Yusof Basiron.

Malaysian palm oil yields have been on an alarming declining trend for nine years, mainly due to mismanagement which led to lack of replanting, as well as rising labour and fertiliser costs, says an expert.

One of the worst-performing industries in the last five years (other than the oil and gas industry) has been the palm oil industry. During this period, companies like First Resources Ltd (SGX: EB5) and Bumitama Agri Ltd. (SGX: P8Z) saw their market capitalizations decline in excess of 30%.