Boycott Malaysia 2019 – India May Restrict Malaysia Palm Oil

Do you know how much Malaysian palm oil was exported to India in 2019?

Palm oil accounts for nearly two-thirds of India’s total edible oil imports. India buys more than 9 million tonnes of palm oil annually, mainly from Indonesia and Malaysia. In the first nine months of 2019, India was the biggest buyer of Malaysian palm oil, taking 3.9 million tonnes, according to data compiled by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (Image & Notes Source: The Star & PalmOilAnalytics)

Read These First:-

• Boycott Malaysia 2019 – Understanding Removal of Article 370
• Boycott Malaysia 2019 – Understanding the Jammu & Kashmir’s Bloody History First

India consistently maintained a trade deficit with Malaysia since 2010. The deficit reached the highest in 2012 with a value of US$ 6.70 billion. The trade balance between India and Malaysia saw a decline in favour of India from 2014.

India’s total exports to Malaysia amounted to USD5.53 billion in 2017 – its top five exports at HS-6 digit level were medium oils and preparations, frozen, boneless bovine meat, unalloyed- unwrought aluminium, copper cathodes and light oils and preparations.

India’s total import from Malaysia in 2017 was US $ 8.90 billion. India’s import was dominated by crude petroleum oils, crude palm oil, palm oil and its fractions, reception apparatus for television, radio, and wire of refined copper CSD <= 6 mm

When it comes to the Indians and the Indian Government, Malaysia seems to be pissing them off on 2 main things – the first was of course, the refusal to send back the Indian fugitive, Zakir Naik. The Pakatan Government not only refused the deportation request but also implied that the Indians will not be able to provide fair protection & hearing to Zakir Naik.

So we ended up keeping the fugitive in Malaysia causing further disharmony within the races in Malaysia but also causing strains to the good relationship between Indian and Government.

Then we screwed by saying Jammu & Kashmir was occupied and this certainly did not go well with the Indians who already treated Jammu & Kashmir as part and parcel of the Union of India.

And now we have this reported in India Today:-

India is considering restricting imports of some products from Malaysia including palm oil, according to government and industry sources, in reaction to the Southeast Asian country’s leader criticising New Delhi for its actions in Kashmir.

A Mumbai-based refiner said it would not create a shortage of edible oils in India if buyers there stopped importing palm oil from Malaysia.

Indonesia is eager to sell more and more palm oil to India, the refiner said, adding that India could also increase imports of soyoil from Argentina and sunflower oil from Ukraine to offset any drop in Malaysian palm oil shipments.

Indonesia wants New Delhi to increase palm oil purchases and wants to buy sugar from India in exchange.

In addition to tensions around Kashmir, there has also been friction between India and Malaysia over Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, whom Indian authorities want extradited from Malaysia. In 2016, an Indian counterterrorism agency accused Naik of promoting hate speech.

(Source)

And the funny part was this:-

Malaysia’s prime minister on Friday said he had not received anything official from India

One wonders if it is the same as the time when he said he did not hear Prof Datuk Zainal Kling’s speech, which reportedly contained a racially charged statement during the Malaysia Dignity Congress?

If this news is true, then it is going to be Indonesia’s gain (which could mean more haze in the coming years) and Malaysia’s loss. Further considering that there is a general ban on palm oil in Europe (EU countries still import some 1.5 million tonnes of palm oil todate), such news from the largest palm oil exporter shows a bleak future for the Malaysian palm oil sector.

We need enough international sales if we are going to make this commodity profitable enough for the planters (PH Government had just allocated RM810 million for their welfare for the year 2020) and large corporations in this country. China is one large market that we need to continue to push and so is Russia (even though their portion of import is very low – just 20,000 tonnes) – both are willing buyers with conditions.

China probably eyeing more development contracts in Malaysia and Russia with offers of new armed deals & new fighter jets for RMAF Russia as of September 2019 only procured 18564 tonnes of palm oil as opposed to India who procured 3,908,212 tonnes of palm oil for the same period.

As at September 2019, Malaysia recorded an export of almost 14 million tonnes of palm oil to destinations all over the world. Out of which, the 2 biggest market is India at 3.9 million tonnes and China at 1.6 million tonnes. Pakistan is the 3rd largest importer at about 820,000 tonnes

(Source)

India procured 3,908,212 tonnes of palm oil as of September 2019. Pakistan, Turkey, Bangladesh’s combined procurement is only 1,544,239 tonnes of palm oil for the same period. Not even half of India’s import

We cannot afford to lose the Indian market for now considering that they still remain the largest importer of palm oil and they are getting a good deal from the Indonesians.

It was estimated palm oil sector alone contributed RM80 billion / USD19 billion of exports in 2018 and of which RM320 million as revenue to the Government in form of indirect export duties.