10/03/2009 (Daily Times, Pakistan), Islamabad - The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has rejected the demand of private sector for allowing export of palm oil from Pakistan.

A senior official of the ministry told Daily Times Monday, there was no logic in this demand as the country imports the essential item with higher domestic demand. Total requirements of palm oil was 3 million tonne and the local production of the commodity was 0.8 million tonne. The remaining 2.2 million tonne of palm oil is met through imports for which the government is spending over $2 billion per annum.

The Collector Custom (Peshawar) demanded of the government to impose ban on export of palm oil because the country met its demand through imports of the commodity. The Pakistan Oilseed Development Board (PODB) was striving hard to promote oilseed crops, like sunflower and canola and oil bearing trees, like olive and palm oil in the country.

The official said during the last 10 years local edible oil production increased from 0.5 million tonne to 0.8 million tonne and local edible oil industry also established its sound network by providing field jobs and facilitating oilseed growers. The Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA) set Canola target for the ongoing (Kharif season) as 260 thousand acres. An area of 172 thousand acres was sown during 2008-09 as compared to 401 thousand acres in 2007-08. The present canola crop was in good condition and production data would be furnished at the harvest of the crop. Punjab is expected to produce 74.96 thousands tonne, Sindh 15.51 thousand tonne, NWFP 23.26 thousand tonne and Balochistan is producing around 20.68 thousand tonne of canola crop.

The FCA set 1250 thousand acres for sunflower cultivation for the ongoing Rabbi season with production target of 754.98 thousand tonne. However, the sunflower was sown over 823.532 thousand acres. Provincial wise target for sunflower is for Punjab 289.91 thousands tonne, Sindh 9966 thousands tonne, NWFP 21.13 thousands tonne and Balochistan 45.30 thousands tonne. The official claimed the government has planned a project to increase the production of palm oil, namely ‘Oil palm Development Project’ in coastal areas of Sindh and Balochistan.