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The palm oil processor behind Indonesia's largest food company has had its membership of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) revoked, after it failed to address serious concerns over its production standards, the RSPO confirmed late last week.

Indofood's palm-oil producing unit has been evicted from the Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification scheme after failing to comply with an action plan to remedy code of conduct violations.

The following factors are likely to influence Malaysian palm oil futures and other vegetable oil markets on Tuesday March 5.

Malaysian palm oil futures gained on Monday to their highest level in a week, boosted by strength in other edible oils and expectations of a trade deal between China and the United States.

Crop-friendly weather over the last few months in top palm oil producers Indonesia and Malaysia will help drive up output of the edible oil, traders and industry players said, underscoring forecasts of record production for 2019.

China is bumping up its palm oil purchase from Malaysia by around 50% to around 4.7 million tonnes, which will be a huge boost to local planters and the government, which has been struggling with high stock piles.

It is only March but local equity analysts have already slashed their full-year profit forecast after Corporate Malaysia delivered yet another disappointing quarter.

Malaysia’s exports in January rose at a faster-than-expected pace of 3.1% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM85.4bil, underpinned by expansion in exports to China, Thailand and South Korea, compared with a Bloomberg survey of a 0.6% contraction.

The following factors are likely to influence Malaysian palm oil futures and other vegetable oil markets on Monday March 4.

World palm oil demand may suffer its first contraction in two decades during the 2019/20 crop year due to rising domestic oilseed supplies in top buyer India and slowing demand in Europe and China, industry participants told Reuters.

Many Malaysians use palm oil daily without realising its remarkable features.

A Sabah woman who broke the male domain in crude palm oil (CPO) mills is continuing to build a “niche” for herself in the industry.