Malaysian Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities H E Datuk Hajah Zuraida Kamaruddin (centre), with Deputy Secretary-General of the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities Mad Zaidi bin Mohd Karli, and Malaysian Ambassador to Qatar H E Zamshari Shaharan, during the press conference.
Malaysia, which is one of the leading palm oil exporters in the world, is eyeing to set up a downstream plant for palm oil in the Qatar Free Zones. The Southeast Asian country is also set to expand its agricultural commodities’ (agricommodities) presence here, especially palm oil, with plans already afoot to establish joint ventures between Malaysian companies and their Qatari counterparts, Malaysian Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities H E Datuk Hajah Zuraida Kamaruddin has said.
Addressing a press conference on the sidelines of a global road show for the upcoming ‘Malaysia International Agricommodity Expo & Summit’ in Doha recently, the Minister said plans to set up a downstream manufacturing facility for palm oil-based products in the Qatar Free Zones will focus on non-food items such as cosmetics and detergents among others.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities is also gearing up to launch a promotional campaign in Qatar through partnerships with local supermarket chains in a bid to attract more households to use Malaysian palm oil for domestic use such as cooking.
It may be noted that Indonesia, the world’s leading palm oil exporter, has recently announced that it will halt its palm oil exports, a move that will further affect global edible oils markets which have already been witnessing surging palm oil prices since the COVID-19 pandemic, and more recently with the ongoing conflict in Europe.
However, Kamaruddin said her country, which is the second leading palm oil exporter in the world, expects its palm oil production to increase this year.
She added that Malaysian palm oil exports to Qatar have been increasing during the past several years, and reiterated that Malaysia is prepared to meet the growing demand for palm oil from the Qatari market.
The Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) anticipates crude palm oil production to improve by 4.9 percent to 19 million tonnes this year, from 18.12 million tonnes in 2021, resulting in palm oil stocks increasing 21.1 percent to 1.95 million tonnes, from 1.61 million tonnes in 2021.
“Qatar is one of the most progressive countries that we visited. And we take this opportunity to develop businesses here. We understand the current Qatar economic policy which has a lot of incentives like tax exemption and special economic zones. These are opportunities that we can capitalise on and we can partner with the local players together with our Malaysian traders. For the palm oil industry, we’re looking at the possibility of setting up a downstream plant here to focus on the palm oil-based non-food products like cosmetics and detergents. We are also trying to see whether we can have some technological transfer with Qatar on this,” said Kamaruddin.
She added: “Also, palm oil usage in Qatar is very much on industrial basis like in hotels. So we are moving towards campaigning for home consumption of using palm oil. And these are the things that we would engage with local supermarket chains to carry our products in the supermarkets”.
The Minister went on to stress that Malaysia has made significant efforts in recent years to render its industries, notably the palm oil industry becoming more sustainable.
She added that her country plans to increase its exports of agricommodities including palm oil, rubber, timber, copper, cocoa, and kenaf to Qatar. Discussions with the Public Works Authority (Ashgal) are also in the pipeline to explore the applications of Malaysia’s ‘rubberised road’ in Qatar’s construction sector, said the Minister.
She added: “Qatar has an increasing trend of using our wood products in buildings, and we wanted to have joint ventures with some of the big companies in Qatar, for instance, Nabina Industry. Also, Malaysia is the number one producer of rubber gloves in the world, with a leading market share of 56 percent. We also have some innovative products made from copper. We have already met with some of the industry leaders in Qatar. So with this engagement, we are trying to strengthen our bilateral trade with Qatar,” said Kamaruddin.
Meanwhile, the strategic collaboration between Baladna, FGV, and Felcra for the development of a large-scale dairy project in Malaysia is on track, according to the Malaysian officials.
Bilateral trade between Qatar and Malaysia rose by 38 percent to QR2.4bn last year from QR1.8bn in 2020, according to Qatar Chamber data.
Kamaruddin, who led a Malaysian economic mission to Qatar, also invited Qatari entrepreneurs and investors to participate in the upcoming Malaysia International Agricommodity Expo & Summmit which will be held from July 26-28, 2022 at the Malaysia International Trade & Exhibition Centre in Kuala Lumpur, with the title ‘Advancing the Agricommodity Sector in a Sustainable Ecosystem’.
During her visit to Doha, Kamaruddin also met with several Qatari officials including the Minister of Commerce and Industry H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Qassim Al Abdullah Al Thani, Minister of Municipality H E Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulazizi bin Turky Al Subaie, Chairman of Qatar Chamber Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim Al Thani, in addition to Qatari agricommodities players, local investment authorities, as well as women entrepreneurs.
