KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil and oleo-chemical manufacturers should grab the opportunity offered by Colombia’s temporary tariff reduction for palm oil and palm oil-related products.
The Colombian government recently published a decree authorising imports of palm oil at a zero rate from the previous 40 per cent, for a period of six months from Feb 29-Aug 29, 2016, the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) said.
The reduction applies to palm oil-related categories such as crude palm oil, palm oil and its fractions, whether or not refined, but not chemically modified, crude palm kernel oil, vegetable oils and fats (hydrogenated and re-esterified), margarine (excluding Liquid Margarine), other mixtures or preparations of vegetable oils and fats, and vegetable and animal oils and fats.
Meanwhile, oleo-chemical products such as stearic acid, oleic acid, and other monocarboxylic industrial fatty acids are included in the measure, Matrade said in a statement yesterday.
Its Trade Commissioner in Miami, Mohd Nadzri Saadon said although temporary, it represents a good business opportunity for palm oil and oleo-chemical manufacturers to make inroads into the Colombian market, provided they can come up with a competitive landed price.
“Based on our interactions with Colombian importers, the sharp depreciation of the Colombian peso against the US dollar and the fact that Ecuador, the main supplier of palm oil to the market has adopted the US dollar as its legal tender, has hurt the country’s importers by making imports more expensive,” he added.
Colombian trade statistics show that imports of palm oil-related products in 2015 totalled US$129 million.
Malaysia’s exports of these products is valued at US$917,000 and registered 0.71 per cent of Colombia’s import market share. — Bernama