Malaysia Your Business Partner (MYBP)

MALAYSIA Your Business Partner

Palm Oil and Palm Oil Products

‘The World’s Nutritional Source’

Among the healthiest of nutritional fats with broad applications and the most efficient oil-bearing crop in the world, palm oil remains an important component in many people’s diets and for manufacturers globally. Malaysia continues to ensure that its palm oil industry is sustainably and responsibly managed.

Malaysia is one of the largest palm oil producers and exporters in the world. What started as an import into British Malaya of oil palm trees fromWest Africa as ornamental plants in the 1870s is now a substantial contributor to its economy. Currently, Malaysia contributes over 28% of global palm oil production and about 30% of world exports of palm oil. Collectively, with all other fats and oils produced in Malaysia, the country accounts for almost 10 % and 20% of the world’s total production and exports of oils and fats respectively. Today, Malaysia produces about 20 million tonnes of palm oil and over 2 million tonnes of palm kernel oil. Malaysia is also a leading producer and exporter of palm olein and vegetable fat, producing stearin and olein fractions which are used in a variety of food.

Malaysia is already shifting the production mix of the palm oil industry to higher value-added products with greater investment in high-yielding downstream sectors. These include oleochemical derivatives, biofuels, biogas and biomass potential, improving food and health-based products, pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products and the production of eco- friendly biofertilisers. Palm oil is one of the biggest drivers of the Malaysian economy and a major contributor to its GDP with major exports destined for China, the EU, India, South Korea, Pakistan, the USA, the Philippines, Vietnam, Turkey and Japan. Much of Malaysia’s palm oil exports conform to the production standards of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil or RSPO, the world’s first palm oil certification body for voluntary certification of sustainably produced palm oil and palm oil products.

Contact MATRADE to make sure you only engage with responsibly produced palm oil producers.

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