Dry weather hurting Malaysian palm oil output: planters

Palm oil output in Malaysia will struggle to rise in the next few months and may not even hit strong double digit peaks this year as the current hot and dry weather hurts yields, plantation officials said on Tuesday. Production in the world's second largest supplier of the vegetable oil will register marginal growth until September or October where the increase may only be above 5 percent compared to double digit growth in previous years.
The dry spell is part of the south-western monsoon that runs from mid-May until September, according to the Malaysian Meteorological Department, and will heighten the yield stress oil palms are suffering after months of strong harvests. Hot weather leads to higher oil extraction rates as there is less water contamination but yields get dented as the fresh fruit bunches tend to be smaller. Palm stocks dropped 5.37 percent to 1.29 million tonnes while output only registered 0.8 percent to 1.28 million tonnes.