KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 8): Malaysia expects demand for palm oil from India to remain steady despite the recent hike in import taxes by the largest buyer of vegetable oils, says Minister of Plantation and Commodities Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani.
“We haven’t seen any issues. The demand for our palm oil remains steady. In fact, prices have surged to over RM4,000 per tonne,” Johari said during a press conference on Tuesday after officiating the Malaysian Palm Oil Forum, organised by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council.
The benchmark palm oil futures for January 2025 delivery was trading at RM4,226 per tonne at the time of writing on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives. The Bursa Malaysia Plantation Index is up 3.6% this year, tracking similar increases in the prices of the commodity in the period.
On the subject of palm oil production, Johari said Malaysia is on track to exceed 19 million tonnes in production this year, marking the highest output since 2020.
Between January and August, Malaysia produced 12.6 million tonnes of palm oil, up 10.2% from the same period in 2023, mainly due to consistent government policies and the resolution of key challenges, such as labour shortages, said the minister.
Last month, Malaysian Palm Oil Board director general Ahmad Parveez Ghulam Kadir was quoted as saying that India’s decision to raise import taxes on palm oil and other edible oils by 20% — a measure aimed at supporting local oilseed farmers — would not significantly impact the competitiveness of Malaysian palm oil in the Indian market.
India’s tax structure includes an increase in the basic customs duty on crude palm oil, soybean oil, and sunflower oil from 0% to 20%, while refined products saw an increase from 12.5% to 32.5%.
India remains Malaysia’s largest export market for palm oil, with 2.84 million tonnes exported in 2023, accounting for 18.8% of total exports, according to MPOB data.
This is followed by China at 1.47 million tonnes (9.7%), the European Union at 1.07 million tonnes (7.1%), and Kenya at 0.92 million tonnes (6.1%), the data showed.