PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia is working on rebranding its palm oil by studying the prospects of having its own certification scheme.
Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said the rebranding exercise was an effort to differentiate Malaysian palm oil from other sources as the commodity has undergone stringent and systematic quality control and enforcement.
“As a country that has all the laws and regulations needed for sustainable production of this important crop, certainly we have not, perhaps, managed to inform the world of what we have been doing.
“This branding exercise is to present to the world the Malaysian product and how it has been produced and how confident we are that we are compliant of the generally accepted principles of what has been described in the 3Ps that is people, planet and profit.
“We are able to satisfy all the three aspects of the palm oil industry,” he told reporters after closing a workshop on “Branding Malaysian Palm Oil” yesterday.
Dompok however said the idea was still under discussion and more workshops will be held to talk about the idea besides getting feedback from stakeholders.
Asked on India’s imposition of import tax for crude palm oil (CPO) and cooking oil, the minister said since Malaysia did not have any export duty on finished products and for CPO at the current price band, the market for Malaysian products may see an increase as compared to countries that imposed export tax.
“It also put Malaysia on a level-playing field with other countries, including Indonesia,” he said.
India announced last week the CPO and soyabean oil imports will be taxed 2.5 per cent while the tariff on purchases of refined cooking oils will be maintained at 7.5 per cent.
On Bangladeshi plantation workers, Dompok said 40,000 workers will be brought to Malaysia on a government-to-government basis, with the first batch of 10,000 workers expected to arrive next month.
Asked on Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s remark that Malaysia’s palm oil tax structure needed to be reviewed, Dompok said the present structure was working quite well and served the interests of all stakeholders.
“Since Jan 1, when the CPO price was below RM2,250 a tonne, there was no duty levied on CPO exports because we want to ensure our producers will not be subjected to any inconvenience when prices are low and the growers are actually enjoying a little profit based on the prices today.
“On the export duty, we’ve taken into account two things, to ensure oil palm growers are not overly burdened and put the refiners in Malaysia on a level-playing field with the other refiners in the region so that they are not subjected to buying expensive feedstock,” he added.
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