02/06/2026 (New Straits Times) - I once dragged lobsters, oysters and olive oil into a palm oil article, not because I had lost my way between the estate and the seafood aisle, but because they carried a lesson: reputations are built, polished and narrated.

Lobsters and oysters were once ordinary fare before becoming luxury. Olive oil did not become glamorous by sitting quietly in a bottle. It was lifted by story, ritual, lifestyle and pride.

Palm oil, too, deserves a better story. Tak kenal maka tak cinta - one does not love what one does not properly know.

The world celebrates almost everything edible. Pasta has a day. Apples have a day. Even the carrot, that earnest orange civil servant of the vegetable kingdom, has secured annual dignity.

So why not palm oil? Why not a Happy Palm Oil Day?

This is not merely a cheerful idea bubbling in an overexcited wok. It is a serious proposal wearing a bright shirt.

Palm oil is too embedded in Malaysian life to be noticed only when prices jump, controversy flares or foreign critics clear their throats.

It deserves one day a year when it is met not as accusation, caricature or a guilty ingredient hiding behind the biscuit tin, but as one of the great working companions of our national life.

Palm oil is not just for the frying pan. It is food, personal care, home care, oleochemicals, biofuels, specialty fats, manufacturing, science, rural employment and export income folded into one remarkable crop.

It starts the morning in soap or shampoo, appears at breakfast through bread and spreads, and later through detergents, cosmetics and industrial uses.

If oils had trade unions, palm oil might complain of excessive duties and insufficient appreciation.

A Palm Oil Day should celebrate first the people: smallholders, planters, harvesters, mill workers, mechanics, drivers, refiners, scientists, women across the supply chain and the young who should inherit its possibilities.

Without them, palm oil would be like nasi lemak without sambal. Present, but missing the soul.

It should also celebrate scale. Palm oil is not a side hustle. Its footprint runs from estates and mills to refineries, ports, transport, packaging, research, services and public finance.

People see the bottle, but often miss the civilisation of work behind it.

History has reminded us more than once. During the Asian financial crisis, global financial turmoil and Covid-19 disruption, stronger palm-related earnings helped cushion Malaysia.

Not cure the crises, certainly. But palm oil provided ballast when the country needed it.

A meaningful Palm Oil Day must also educate. Palm oil is everywhere, yet seldom properly introduced. That invisibility allows others to define it simplistically.

We speak of it as though it were only a commodity, when it is also chemistry, nutrition, trade policy, food affordability, rural development and innovation. It is much more than crude. That unfortunate adjective has done enough damage.

Imagine the day done well: cooking festivals, school modules, university exhibitions, smallholder awards, youth innovation showcases, women leadership recognition, public storytelling and open days showcasing from 'seed to table'.

Let chefs, students, entrepreneurs, scientists and agronomists tell the story together. Social media could amplify literacy instead of outrage.

But the tone matters. Palm Oil Day must not become propaganda with canapés.

It must acknowledge unfinished work: replanting, productivity, mechanisation, labour standards, smallholder support, certification credibility, biodiversity, downstream upgrading and consumer engagement.

The best celebration is one that does not hide its homework. Yet neither should the sector remain timid.

Pride is not the enemy of responsibility. Celebration is not the opposite of reform. A nation that cannot speak well of its strengths will struggle to improve them.

So yes, palm oil deserves a day to honour the people behind it, teach the young, connect kitchen, estate, mill, lab, boardroom and breakfast table, and appreciate a crop that has given Malaysia income, resilience, work and possibility.

A day, in short, to meet palm oil properly with wit, warmth, honesty, dignity and a little national backbone.

*The writer has over 30 years of experience in the plantation industry, with a strong background in oil palm R&D, executive leadership and industry advocacy through MEOA and MPOA. The views expressed in this article are his own.

https://www.nst.com.my/business/insight/2026/06/1453392/why-not-happy-palm-oil-day