Mission to promote Malaysian palm oil, rubber in Qatar ends successfully

A Malaysian mission led by its Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Zuraida Kamaruddin to explore further opportunities for palm oil and rubber in Qatar has concluded successfully.
The Economic and Agricommodities Promotion Mission held on April 19 and April 20 saw series of high-profile meetings and discussions aimed at promoting Malaysian agricommodity products.
Several promising ideas, including applications of the rubberised roads in Qatar were discussed.
In Qatar Kamaruddin has met with Ministry of Municipality HE Abdullah Bin Abdulazizi Bin Turky Al Subaie, Minister of Commerce and Industry HE Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Qassim Al-Abdullah Al-Thani and Qatar Chamber Chairman Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim Al Thani. Besides, she met with other local official dignitaries. She has also chaired a roundtable meeting with Qatari agricommodities players, met with the local investment authorities, academicians and local women entrepreneurs, as well as members of the Malaysian diaspora in Qatar.
In a statement, the Malaysian ministry said the country’s Palm Oil Board anticipates crude palm oil production to improve by 4.9 percent to 19 million tonnes this year, from 18.12 million tonnes in 2021.
“This would increase palm oil stocks by 21.1% to 1.95 million tonnes in 2022, 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 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.
Kamaruddin has conducted missions to several countries beginning the year 2022 to increase exports of Malaysian commodities, especially palm oil. The countries visited include Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Egypt, besides 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.