Tuesday June 21, 2005, 7:31 pm - CAIRO (Dow Jones)--Egypt imported758,000 metric tons of Malaysian palm oil during the 2004/2005 season sofar, Hatem Saafan, Regional Director of the Malaysian Palm Oil Board toldDow Jones Tuesday.

Al Ahram government-owned daily quoted Safwan Thabet, President of theEgyptian Food Industries Chamber on Tuesday as stating that 60% of Egypt'sfood oil imports consisted of Malaysian palm oil due to its low pricecompared to other food oils.

Egypt's consumption of palm oil constitutes 32% of the Middle East as awhole.

Egypt consumes 1.1 million tons of food oil per year, while it producesonly 100,000 tons. Egypt imports around 90% of its food oil needs.