6/2/06 JAKARTA, (Asia Pulse) - A slump is expected to hit the global crude palm oil (CPO) market in 2008 when total production from Malaysia and Indonesia is estimated to reach 30 million tons, an Indonesian industry official said.

Malaysia and Indonesia are the world's largest and second largest producers respectively and both dominate the world CPO market.

Chairman of the association of palm oil companies (Gapki) Derom Bangun said Indonesia and Malaysia could avoid a downturn by cooperating to keep the market firm.

An increase in per capita consumption of palm oil in the country from 10 kg currently will also help ease marketing problem in the coming years, the newspaper Bisnis Indonesia quoted Bangun as saying.

Bangun noted that in 1996, there was a similar slump when CPO prices plunged to US$200 per ton from US$600 in the previous year.

He predicted that this year Indonesia's CPO production will reach 14.7 million tons, up 1.1 million tons from 2005.

(ANTARA)