MPOB to provide technical cooperation to Pakistan

03/12/2010 (The Daily Mail), Karachi - As import of palm oil from Malaysia has crossed to well over $2 billion per annum, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) has agreed to extend technical co-operation to Pakistan's growers of palm plants in coastal areas of Sindh and Punjab.

The speakers at seminar including Director Enforcement of Licensing Division, MPOB, Haji Adzmi Hassan, Iftikhar A Choudhry of Habib Oil Mills, Research Officer of MPOB, Dr Teng Kim-Tiu, Secretary General, Pakistan Vanaspati Manufacturers Association, Zafar Hameed Hashmi and MPOB’s Regional Manager in Karachi, Mohammad Fairus have highlighted the nutritional values of palm oil in their representations on Wednesday.

At a seminar jointly held by MPOB and PVMA on Malaysian palm oil industry and 50 years of vanaspati industry in Pakistan at a local hotel it was agreed on principle that Pakistan should produce palm oil locally by growing palm trees as weather and atmosphere in coastal areas in Pakistan are suitable for planting of palm trees and an earlier experiment in Vinder, Balochistan near Karachi was quite successful.

The Director MPOB, Haji Adzmi Hassan said that Malaysia has strong emphasis on quality as the strategy to sustain this important revenue-earning commodity in international markets. He added that Malaysian government is committed to quality of palm oil through research and development, enforcement and legislation, implementation of competency schemes and to guide the industry to meet the needs of the palm oil users.

He said that Pakistan is third largest importer of Malaysian palm oil in 2009 as its import has reached to over 1.76 million tonnes a year while European Union is the second largest importer of palm oil with 1.89 million tonnes. China remains the biggest importer of palm oil with an annual import of 4.03 million tonnes. Malaysia is earning RM49.66 billion through export of 15.88 million tonnes of palm oil, he added.

Zafar Hameed Hashmi while giving an overview of edible oil and ghee manufacturing industry in Pakistan said that almost 4 per cent consumers in Pakistan are shifting to edible oil from vanaspati ghee and annual consumption of edible oil in Pakistan has reached to 2.8 million tonnes whereas installed capacity of PVMA’s registered units is e million tonnes while capacity utilization of these units stands at 70 to 80 per cent. He informed that over 150 industrial units in Pakistan are involved in producing vegetable ghee and cooking oils and extraction of edible oil is being done through different imported and locally produced seeds.

Hashmi said that Pakistan is the second largest importer of edible oils as only around 28 per cent of its requirement is available from domestic sources. The remaining needs are met by imports of various edible oils mostly palm oil. He disclosed that previously Pakistan was importing palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia on 50/50 ratio but the presently Pakistan is importing 100 per cent palm oil from Malaysia.

Hashmi pointed that opportunities for the ghee and oil manufacturers in Pakistan are in abundance as apart from meeting local demand of oil and ghee; there is big potential of export to Afghanistan and Central Asian States as well.

Mohammad Fairus mentioned in his presentation that MPOB’s has completed almost 25 years of its presence in Pakistan.