Malaysian Palm Oil Council

Pakistan

The contribution of palm oil to the world's food supply has steadiy increased in the last 20 years and its position on the global oils and fats trade is expected to remain. Despite a strong demand for its application in food industry palm oil has yet to position itself favourably human nutrition.This is heavily due to the misconception among consumersand lack of awareness on the nutritional functions and attributes of palm oil to human health.

The Malaysian Palm Oil FORTUNE is MPOC's monthly market update covering the latest development in the oils and fats market. Keep abreast with marketing issues around the globe. Be sure to look out for the next issue of Malaysian Palm Oil Fortune!

Datuk Leslie Davidson, one of the giants of the oil palm industry in the second half of the twentieth century is best known for his leading role in introducing to S E Asia the pollinating weevil. This has saved the industry millions of dollars annually in assisted pollination.

Palm oil has been used as both a food and a medicine for thousands of years. it was prized by the pharaohs of ancient Egypt as a sacred food. Today palm oil is the most widely used oil in the world. In tropical Africa and Southeast Asia it is an integral part of a healthy diet just as olive oil is in the Mediterranean.

Palm oil possesses excellent cooking properties. It is more heat stable than other vegetable oils and imparts in foods and baked goods superior taste, texture, and quality.

As one of the world's largest producers and exporters of palm oil and its products, the Malaysian oil palm industry is the pride of the country. Over the past 50 years, the industry has grown by leaps and bounds to feed millions of people worldwide, provide political and economic stability to the nation and enhance social development. Quietly, the industry has not only improved the living standards of farmers, but also provided employment to more than half a million Malaysians.

Palm oil is one of the 17 major oils traded in the global edible oils and fats market. It has been consumed as food from as long as 5,000 years ago and today is found in one out of every ten food products worldwide. Its sibling oil, palm kernel oil, is extensively used in the oleochemical industry, which produces chemical feedstock for non-edible products such as cosmetics, toiletries, industrial cleaning agents and candles.

Oil palm, scientifically known as Elaeis guineensis jaq, is a unique crop as its fruit produces two distinct types of oils; crude palm oil from the mesocarp and crude palm kernel oil from the kernel. Both of these oils, which are mainly made up of triglycerides, are chemically and physically different from each other with palm oil high in palmitic acid (C16 fatty acid) and palm kernel oil high in lauric and myristic acids (C12 and C14 fatty acids respectively).

Palm oil is the newest world commodity, but is already the target of scare-mongering that mixes bad science with poor knowledge. Those who would deny Malaysian palm oil its place are putting out one-sided stories that appeal to romanticism and nostalgia.

Download the full annual report to read the full statement by the Chairman and CEO. The annual report will also offer market overview, activities and market reports for various regions, promotional and other activities done by MPOC to strenghtened the image of Malaysian palm oil.

We refer to the BBC1 television quiz programme at 8pm on May 28 ËœTest the Nation: Know Your Planet in which a question and a multiple-choice answer linked oil palm cultivation to destruction of orang utan habitats. We ask that this be corrected immediately as it may have inadvertently left viewers with serious misconceptions in relation to Malaysia, the worlds largest producer and exporter of palm oil.

Contrary to the impressions given by Mr. Stanley Johnson in his article, orang utan remains Malaysia's favourite animal, and every effort has been taken by the Malaysian Government to protect the environment and the orang utan.

FOR so long, the leading commodity export of Malaysia has been maligned by competitors unable to face the heat of the competition from Malaysian palm oil. One of these attacks came in a report by Jane E. Brody "The loaded message of margarine" (NST, Sept 19). To be fair, the report itself raised awareness among consumers of the health hazards of margarine made from hydrogenated fats. As Malaysians, we are probably the only nation in the world today that has been spared this nutritional malaise because of our now traditional use of palm oil in place of hydrogenated fats.

A top level team of experts was assembled by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) in London last week for a symposium on Sustainability Resource Development. This was in response to strongly worded statements appearing in the London media from NGOs who had tried to associate palm oil with the habitat loss of orang utan, in view of the expansion of palm oil production in recent years.

The World population is forecast to reach 8.9 billion by 2050, an increase of 2.8 billion from today. Can these people be fed? Yes, by intensive agriculture (but not by subsistence agriculture). Over the last 40 years, food supplies have risen faster than population, without much increase in cultivated area, as a result of more intensive agriculture

The State of Sabah still retains some 60% of her land surface under natural forest cover despite rapid land development since independence in 1963. This translates into some 3.9 million hectares of forest reserves, parks, wildlife sanctuaries and water catchments, devoted to forestry and conservation purposes.