KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 21 (Bernama) -- Malaysia will continue to talk to Indiain its efforts to further reduce the import duties for palm oil, PrimaryIndustries Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik, said Friday.

Dr Lim said he would be going to India early next year to discuss theissue further either "on a bilateral basis or through the World TradeOrganisation (WTO)."

India, the world's largest edible oil importer, recently cut the customsduty on crude palm oil to 65 percent from 75 percent.

However, he said there was still a wide disparity between the duties onpalm oil and soya bean oil. The duty on soya oil stands at 45 percent.

As such, soya oil which bears the least duty enjoys a tremendous hike inits import volume.

"If palm oil duty is lower, we can also export more to India," he told apress conference here today.

Besides high tariff, India has also introduced the fixed tariff price forpalm oil import and this has also affected palm oil position in India.

As of October 2001, India imported 5.1 million tonnes of oils and fatswith palm oil and soya bean oil accounting for almost 60 percent of theimport.

Palm oil is still the major oil imported by India and almost 50 percent ofthe import is from Malaysia.

Dr Lim said India has imported about 1.8 million tonnes of palm oil as atOctober 2001 and this is expected to touch 2.0 million tonnes by end of2001.

He said the local palm oil prices are expected to be steady in early nextyear as the industry has overcome the high production month.

He also noted that the total production for 2001 would reach 11.4 milliontonnes, up from 10.8 million tonnes last year.

The production, he said is expected to increase further to 11.8 milliontonnes in 2002. -- BERNAMA