Malaysia to increase palm oil export to Pakistan

• Palm oil market share in Pakistan currently stands at 22 percent only, there is room for improvement, but they are also asking for crude palm oil with a lower price.
• “Hopefully from 22 percent, we can increase it to 50 percent or 60 percent. That would be a great improvement.”
• There is also an increase of tourists applying for visas to come to Malaysia so there is a potential increase of bilateral trade between two countries.

ISLAMABAD: Malaysia aims to increase the palm oil export to Pakistan to 60 percent from the current 22 percent after Islamabad sounded interest to import more palm oil from the country.

Malaysian Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok said Malaysia’s palm oil market share in Pakistan currently stands at 22 percent only, there is room for improvement, but they are also asking for crude palm oil (CPO) with a lower price, so there needs to be detailed discussions between both countries.

“Hopefully from 22 percent, we can increase it to 50 percent or 60 percent. That would be a great improvement,” she said.

She added that there is also a potential to increase bilateral trade between Malaysia and Pakistan as Pakistan’s population of more than 200 million could serve as a potential destination for the increased use of Malaysian’s palm oil.

“Through bilateral trade, a lot of issues can be ironed out. When I went to Karachi, there was a request that there should be more flights from Pakistan to Malaysia, especially from Karachi, the Malaysian Reserve reported.

“If you check from the embassy, there is also an increase of tourists applying for visas to come to Malaysia so there is a potential increase of bilateral trade between two countries,” she added.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has recently pledged to import more palm oil from Malaysia during his bilateral meeting with PM Dr Mahathir Mohammad.

Malaysia is the second-largest producer of palm oil after Indonesia and has been its biggest market for the past five years.