Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Malaysia, YB Datuk Hajah Zuraida Kamaruddin, has concluded her Economic and Agricommodities Promotion Mission Qatar from 19 April 2022 to 20th April 2022. During the mission, she has taken the opportunity to meet up with her counterpart; chaired the Roundtable Meeting with Qatari Agricommodities Players, meeting up with the Local Investment Authorities, Academicians, and the Local Women Entrepreneurs and Diaspora.
Among the Ministers and foreign dignitaries who met up with YB Datuk, Zuraida Kamaruddin are H.E. Dr. Abdullah Bin Abdulazizi Bin Turky Al Subaie- Ministry of Municipality, State of Qatar; H.E. Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Qassim Al-Abdullah Al-Thani- Minister of Commerce and Industry of Qatar; H.E Sheikh Khalifa Bin Jassim Al Thani- Chairman of Qatar Chamber of Commerce & Industry (QCCI). The Hon. Minister also had meetings with other local official dignitaries.
As part of MPIC’s initiatives in promoting Malaysian agricommodity products, the round table discussions will bridge the trade promotional activities, business cooperation, and information exchange between governments and key players from within the industry, particularly for palm oil, rubber, and timber products.
The palm oil price has been at the forefront of edible oil news since the pandemic started in 2020 and due to recent ongoing conflict in Europe. The current price surge is driven by the outlook for the supply of substitute vegetable oils due to uncertainty over sunflower seed oil from Ukraine and Russia. Tight supply from the producing countries has also impacted the global palm oil price.
Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) anticipated crude palm oil (CPO) production to improve by 4.9% to 19 million tonnes this year, from 18.12 million tonnes in 2021, resulting in palm oil stocks increasing 21.1% to 1.95 million tonnes, from
1.61 million tonnes in 2021. This is excellent news to the industry players and market onlookers. It shows Malaysia is prepared to meet the encouraging demand for palm oil from the Qatari market. A few promising ideas, such as exploring the applications of the rubberized road in Qatar are being discussed and Malaysia is hopeful that the initiatives will benefit all involved parties.
The Hon. Minister has conducted missions to several countries beginning the year 2022 to increase exports of Malaysian commodities, especially palm oil. The countries visited are Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Egypt, and Qatar. Malaysian companies also took part in these Ministerial missions to strengthen and re-establish bilateral relations. Among the achievements are proposals to establish joint venture partnerships in India and Pakistan. There were also proposals from Qatar and Egypt to invest with Malaysian companies to set up production facilities in Malaysia. This is seen as a strategic move that will accelerate the commodities export to the regions.
