DHAKA, Dec 6 (Bernama) -- Import of palm oil in Bangladesh increasedsubstantially this year and the total quantity of palm oil import isexpected to cross the mark of 500,000 tonnes before the end of 2003.

"Palm oil is now dominating Bangladesh market and the share of palm oil inlocal edible oil market is now over 50 percent", said AKM Fakhrul Alam,Country Manager of Malaysian Palm Oil Promotion Council (MPOPC) forBangladesh.

Statistics available from official sources show that the quantity ofimport of edible oil in Bangladesh during January-December 2003 would beabout one million tonnes, of which over 900,000 tonnes have already beenimported.

Another 100,000 tonnes are in the pipeline which are expected to reachChittagong seaport before December 31.

The imported edible oils include over 500,000 tonnes of palm oil most ofwhich were imported directly from Malaysia while the rest came fromIndonesia through Singapore-based trading houses.

The statistics also show that import of edible oil including palm oil inBangladesh this year also registered significant growth of over 12 percentcompared to last year 2002.

Fakhrul said that increasing consumer awareness towards palm oil, itscomparatively lower price than soyabean oil and launching of severalconsumer packs of the oil have contributed to the increase in palm oil'sshare in the edible oil market in Bangladesh.

In 1995, share of palm oil in imported edible oil market in Bangladesh wasonly 10 percent when the market was largely dominated by soyabean oil.

But the scenario started changing from that year with the increase of palmoil import while the import of its main competitor soyabean oil decreased.

While palm oil occupies over 50 percent share in edible oil market,soyabean oil's share is little over 42 percent and the rest of the sharesgoes to mustard and rapeseed oil.

"Only 10 years ago, palm oil's market in Bangladesh remained limitedwithin 100,000 tonnes a year, now the annual import of palm oil increasedfive times and over 50 percent of this oil is coming from Malaysia", saidFakhrul describing it as a significant development.

During the last few years, the Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA)of Malaysia has been assisting the MPOPC to expand palm oil's market inBangladesh.

"FELDA's active presence helped us a lot to expand palm oil's market inthis country", Fakhrul said.

-- BERNAMA