14/07/2011 (Bernama) - Media can play an important role in educating the public to understand the real issues affecting palm oil and counter negative campaigns carried out by certain quarters.

Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said of late there was a disturbing development over the unfair palm oil labeling on all Australian food.

"I had met Australian High Commissioner to Malaysia Milles Kupa recently to express Malaysia's concerns on the development," he said at the ministry's Media Appreciation Night here Wednesday night.

Dompok said he would also be leading a one-week economic and technical mission to Australia starting July 24 to counter the misconceptions and assert that Malaysian palm oil was sustainable produced.

On June 23, the Australian Senate passed an amendment to the Food Act requiring products containing palm oil to be explicitly labelled, rather than be described as vegetable oil. Dompok described the Bill as a discriminatory law against palm oil as competing vegetable oils were not required to do the same.

"The labeling of Malaysian palm oil is not consistent with the prevailing trade regulations by the World Trade Organisation," he said.

He said the attempt to unfairly label palm oil could be due to the fact that the Malaysian plantation industry was doing so well that it had to endure allegations linked to sustainability such as deforestation, illegal logging, forced labour and claims that palm oil being unhealthy.

Therefore, the ministry has to raise awareness through the media and hoped the good working relationship between the media and the ministry and its agencies will be further strengthened, he said.