Addressing a joint press conference with the Malaysian Minister for Plantation Industries and Commodities, Tan Sri Bernard Dompok, on Tuesday, he said, “we want to make sure that there is no excessive burden on the country’s foreign reserves,” adding the two countries have “to work towards maintaining a sustainable trade balance.”
Responding to questions about local cultivation of oil palms, the federal minister asserted that “experiments have been carried out successfully at the facility developed in Thatta, with the help of the Malaysian government.” He explained that palm oil may be produced indigenously but added that it will take time to do so.
Commenting on the price of palm oil, he said that it currently stood at 3,700 ringgit per ton and would not drop below 3,000 ringgit this year. He pointed out that Malaysia is busy engaging the United States and the European Union in efforts to stem opposition of palm oil from various pressure groups.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 19th, 2011.
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