Malaysian manufacturer promotes palm oil downstream products in China

NANNING, Oct 24 (Bernama) -- A Malaysian palm oil manufacturer is promoting palm oil downstream products in China.

POIC Sabah Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Datuk Dr Pang Teck Wai said currently Malaysia's main palm oil export to China was cooking oil but palm oil had great potential and could be converted to value-added products like biomass.

"That's why we are here to stress on value-added products. We want the Chinese buyers to think big," he told a commodities sourcing seminar held in conjunction with the 8th China-Asean Expo (Caexpo), here.

The seminar is co-hosted by the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (ACCCIM), Malaysia-China Chamber of Commerce and Sabah Government-owned POIC Sabah Sdn Bhd.

Malaysia exports five to six million tonnes of palm oil to China in the form of cooking oil every year, says ACCCIM executive advisor Tan Sri Soong Siew Hoong.

Soong said the 421 palm oil mills in Malaysia produced about 20 million tonnes of empty fruit bunches and after crude palm oil was extracted, most palm oil mills burn the bunches or use them to produce fertilizer.

"Empty fruit bunches can be processed into long fibre for mattress stuffing, fuel briquettes and fertilizers in cake or pellet form, paper pulp and paper products, composite fibre boards and other products.

"Imagine the potential of palm oil and palm fibre biomass which are waiting to be converted into value-added products. There are over six million tonnes of empty fruit bunches produced annually from Sabah palm oil mills," he said.

Soong said the world is the market for downstream value-added products, which are environment-friendly and price-competitive.

"Indicative export prices for empty fruit bunches pellets are RM150 to RM300 per tonne and for long fibre is RM600 per tonne," he added.

Pang told Bernama that POIC Sabah would collect empty fruit bunches and sell them to interested buyers as some palm oil millers might not sell the bunches to outsiders.

Palm oil has been identified as one of the National Key Economic Areas (NKEAs) under the Economic Transformation Programme.

There are 421 palm oil mills in Malaysia, including 124 in Sabah, which produced 17.7 million tonnes of crude palm oil in 2009 and contributed US$17.6 billion to Malaysia's economy, the fourth largest in that year.

Also present at the seminar were Sabah Assistant Minister for Industrial Development Datuk Panglima Michael Asang and Malaysia-China Chamber of Commerce president Datuk Bong Hon Liong.

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