French ambassador believes palm oil stands a good chance of penetrating European market with more promotions
If I may give some recommendations to the Malaysian and Indonesian governments, they should intensify their lobbying in Paris and other European capitals.
Christophe Penot, French ambassador to Malaysia
KUCHING: Malaysia and other palm oil producing countries have not lobbied hard enough for the oil to penetrate European markets, says French ambassador to Malaysia His Excellency Christophe Penot.
Penot said Paris, through its research institute called CIRAD (the French Agricultural Research and International Cooperation Organisation Working for the Sustainable Development of Tropical and Mediterranean Regions), would be an ideal launching pad for palm oil producers to reach out to European consumers.
“If I may give some recommendations to the Malaysian and Indonesian governments, (it is that) they should intensify their lobbying in Paris and other European capitals.
“Palm oil has a good case. If you read scientific evidence, the case is good. So lobbying has to be made. I think it is very important to do this,” Penot told The Borneo Post in an exclusive interview at a leading hotel here yesterday.
He added that palm oil producers should educate European consumers on the set up of oil palm plantations based on scientific findings.
“CIRAD, which specialises in agriculture production, have made reports on palm oil that are very positive … much more positive than the rumours we are hearing in some European capitals.
“You need to convince people because French consumers are particular about what is in their food. They are health conscious and nature-friendly,” said Penot.
Penot was here on an official visit to the state capital. While here, he will be making courtesy calls on the governor and the chief minister.
When contacted, Land Development Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Jemut Masing welcomed Penot’s recommendation and urged the private and public sectors to take up the challenge so that palm oil could have a bigger market.
“We welcome his recommendation, and we should take his advice seriously. So far, the government and its agencies, such as MPOB and MPOC, have done a very good job. But now, perhaps, we have to be more aggressive in selling our palm oil products to the world,” said Masing.
On a related issue, Masing said Sarawak should be given adequate budget to open up more land for oil palm plantation.
He said the state was now targeting to open up some 700,000 hectares of land in the next five years for oil palm plantation to add on to the present 1.3 million hectares of land already planted with the crop.
“All these years, Sarawak has been given peanuts. So we hoped that in the next five years, the Federal Government will allocated to us at least RM11.2 billion to develop the remaining 700,000 hectares of land earmarked for the crop as at least RM16,000 is needed to develop a hectare of land.”
He said it was unfair for the Federal Government to allocate only a small sum to Sarawak annually when it could put in billions for both the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) and Federal Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (Felcra) in Peninsular Malaysia.
Meanwhile, Masing reiterated the need for both the private and public sector to cooperate closely to further develop the palm oil industry as there was more needed to be done such as greater mechanisation especially to harvest the fresh fruit bunches (FFBs).
“If we have been successful in our timber industry with the introduction of both tractors and helicopters, I think we too can do also be successful by being innovative in the oil palm industry where we need to reduce our dependency on manual labourers to harvest our FFBs,” he said.
Masing said since Malaysia was already well advanced in the oil palm industry, it should spend more money of research and development in order for the country to be the top player in oil palm industry especially in the downstream activities.