MIRI (Sept 20): Malaysia’s palm product export revenue increased significantly for the first six months of this year, totalling 14.05 million tonnes with a value of RM71.02 billion.

Deputy Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Willie Mongin said that for the same period last year, the figure recorded was 11.54 million tonnes with a value of RM45.75 billion.

“This (the increase) was due to high demand from importing countries, and the high price of palm oil in the market,” he said at the launch of the Oil Palm Smallholders National Conference 2022 here on Tuesday (Sept 20).

For the whole of 2021, he said Malaysia exported 25.44 million tonnes of palm oil to more than 160 countries, contributing to an export income worth RM108.52 billion.

He said as an agricultural commodity that is oriented towards the export market, the palm oil industry faces various challenges that could threaten the trade of the product abroad.

“It is important for all parties in the industry to work together to address this challenge, which will make the country’s palm oil industry more mature and competitive,” he said.

Willie said the usage of technology in the oil palm plantation sector, in addition to good agricultural practices and sustainable production, could have an impact on increasing yields and strengthening the industry’s competitiveness.

He said the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) had produced various technologies that could be used by the industry and smallholders to increase their output, such as the motorised fresh fruit bunch harvesting machine or Cantas, which increases the yield by more than 100% to 8.7 tonnes a day, compared with 3.6 tonnes per day via the manual method.

Willie said the Government is also encouraging oil palm smallholders to engage in the practice of crop and livestock integration through incentive schemes worth up to RM7,000 per hectare for crops, and RM15,000 for livestock.

He added that these smallholders are also advised to join the Sustainable Oil Palm Growers Cooperatives, which would allow them to get government funding for their farming efforts.

About 500 oil palm smallholders participated in the two-day conference, which was also attended by MPOB chairman Jugah Muyang@Tambat and director general Dr Ahmad Parveez Ghulam Kadir.