27/12/2007 (The News International, Pakistan), Islamabad - Pakistan imported 100,000 tonnes palm oil till Dec 25 and emerged the third largest importer of the commodity.

China is the biggest importer of palm oil with the import of 303,000 tonnes palm oil during the same period and the European Union is the second largest importer with 260,000 tonnes of palm oil imports, Geo TV reported.

Thus, a total of 1.17 tonnes of palm oil were imported from Malaysia till Dec 25, which is 0.8 per cent less as compared with last year. Malaysia is the world’s largest producer of palm oil. The importers have to pay around 45 per cent duty on import value besides paying 50 per cent import landing tax to the government.

Pakistan imports mostly Malaysian palm oil and olein to meet domestic demand of 1.99 million tonnes, as locally produced cottonseed meets rest of the demand. Edible oil import costs around $989 million every year.