Board to form palm oil forum to keep industry harmony
Published on: Saturday, December 07, 2019
By: Bernama
File photo from Bernama.
Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) would assume the endearing role of keeping every party in the palm oil industry in sync by setting up among others, a palm oil forum.Having said that, MPOB director general Dr Ahmad Parveez Ghulam Kadir acknowledged that Malaysia has 14 different associations for the oil palm industry.
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“We need each other, we need to work together, and it is very important for us to harmonise the system and now we’re already talking to some associations, we’re going to have some forum with them to work together. That is what my main purpose is, to keep people together,” he said.
He noted that the associations were concerned with fighting for their own niche benefit and their own members.
“We have the Palm Oil Refiners Association of Malaysia (Poram), which is taking care of trade, The Palm Oil Millers’ Association (POMA) taking care of the millers, we have the Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOA), for the growers in upstream,” he told reporters at the ‘Palm Oil Familiarisation For Media’, recently.
Others he also mentioned were the Malaysian Biodiesel Association (MBA), Malaysian Oleochemical Manufacturers’ Group (MOMG), Malayan Edible Oil Manufacturers’ Association (MEOMA) and East Malaysia Planters’ Association (EMPA).
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“Last year there were talks of forming a palm oil industry forum; what my main concern now is how all these different associations and different players can work together as we have to come together as an industry, to take care of the whole industry.
“In downstream for instance, if they’re (downstream members) only thinking of themselves, and profit, forgetting about the upstream which are the growers, and if the growers don’t want to grow oil palm, what happens to all these downstream - they will cease to exist and similarly if anything bad upstream is doing it will affect the downstream,” Ahmad Parveez lamented.
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MPOB’s desire, he said, was for the growers, millers, refiners, and even the downstream sector to all have the same understanding that everyone had to work together.
“We need to have a win-win situation, but when you are to have a win-win situation, they have to sacrifice, that’s important as each party needs to appreciate the contribution of other parties,” he said.
On competing with Indonesia’s palm oil industry, Ahmad Parveez said the republic could control the market because of size.
“They have the largest area, almost three times our size and their production is more than double. Indonesians can control the market because they are able to offer good prices.
“If we’re still depending on commodities, we’re going to lose, we need to go downstream and to go downstream we need to improve delivery of our palm oil.
“When I took over on Aug 10, 2019, there were lots of issues - with European Union, renewable energy directive, with France going to stop using our biodiesel by next year, as well as India and China with a couple of issues.
“So all these markets are creating a lot more challenges; if we don’t unite, it is very difficult for us to be able to handle the market,” he stressed.
Nevertheless, Ahmad Parveez still sees light at the end of the tunnel in CPO price stability with the government’s move to implement the B20 and 100 per cent registration for the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) Certification Scheme next year.
“In the budget 2020 also the government had announced RM30 million funding for matching grants for companies and universities interested to go downstream, for example, our bio-jet fuel and tocotrienol.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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