OIL palm exports rose 10.5% in the first two months of this year compared with last year, said Teresa Kok.

“Among the increase in exports were from India (65%), China (62%), Mozambique (93.5%), South Korea (46.3%), the United States (20.3%), and Nigeria (2.3%),” said the primary industries minister in the Dewan Rakyat today.

She said the prices for January and February also showed an improvement.

“In December, the price was RM1,794.50 per tonne, while January was RM2,037 and February was RM2,122,” said Kok during the question-and-answer session today.

Kok was responding to Ronald Kiandee’s (Beluran-PH) question on the government’s efforts to improve the use of biodiesel.

“This year, we are expected to burn 710,000 tonnes of B10 biodiesel, an improvement from last year,” said Kok.

The minister, however, did not state the target for the use of biofuels.

She was then interrupted by Barisan Nasional MPs on whether there was any improvement in oil palm prices.

Kok said the Primary Industries Ministry has set aside a RM1 million fund to encourage the setting up of more cooperatives.

“We have given RM100,000 to Koperasi Penanam Sawit Mampan as working capital. We want to encourage more cooperatives to buy from smallholders and eliminate the middlemen who are exploiting smallholders,” said Kok.

She was responding to Yusuf Abd Wahab’s (Tg Manis-GPS) suggestion for the government to encourage wholesalers to offer higher prices to smallholders when buying oil palm bunches. – March 21, 2019.