Friday April 15, 2005 - Malaysia, the world’s biggest supplier of crudepalm oil, expects to raise production of the commodity to 14.2 milliontonnes this year owing to higher demand.

Ramli Abdullah, an official at the Palm Oil Board, said in a report to bepresented at a conference in China tomorrow that the figure was anincrease of 1.6% compared with the 13.98 million tonnes produced lastyear. Malaysia may produce 16.7 million tonnes by 2010 and 18.2 milliontonnes by 2020.

Malaysia is also increasing production to meet export demand.

It has forecast exports rising 4.1% to 13.1 million from 12.58 milliontonnes last year. - Bloomberg