16/07/2010 (The News International), Jakarta - Pakistan has bought nearly 20 percent of the palm oil exports ahead of Ramazan, traders said on Thursday.

Malaysian crude palm oil rose to a more than three-week high at midday on Thursday, supported by strong demand ahead of the start of Ramazan in August.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for July 1-15 rose 16.4 percent to 708,384 tonnes from 608,324 tonnes shipped between June 1 and 15, cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance said on Thursday.

“We are moving in to Ramazan next month which will push up demand from Muslim countries,” a trader at a foreign-brokerage firm said. “Soybean also gained which also supports the market.”

While Muslims refrain from eating and drinking from dawn to sunset during Ramadan, consumption increases from when they break their fast to the next morning.

The benchmark September contract on Bursa Malaysia’s Derivatives Exchange edged up 14 ringgit or 0.59 percent to 2,395 ringgit ($748) a tonne by midday, after touching an intraday high of 2,418 ringgit — a level last seen on June 21.

Overall volume stood at 11,133 lots of 25 tonnes each, more than double the usual 5,000 lots.