18/01/2012 (Business Times) - Palm oil output from Malaysia, the second-largest producer after Indonesia, may reach 19 million metric tons in 2012, according to Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Bernard Dompok.

“Production figures would see an increase because there are plantation crops that are maturing,” Dompok told Bloomberg after speaking at a seminar in Petaling Jaya, near Kuala Lumpur, today. Dompok cited crops in the eastern state of Sarawak.

Production climbed 11 per cent to 18.9 million tons in 2011 from 16.99 million tons a year earlier, according to data from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board. The nation’s output may be flat this year, between 18.6 million and 19 million tons, Dorab Mistry, director of Godrej International Ltd, said on Dec. 2. -- Bloomberg