Gov't targets 10 percent increase in local palm oil use

The Primary Industries Ministry targets a 10 percent increase in the use of palm oil and its products through the “Sayangi Sawitku” campaign.

Its minister Teresa Kok Suh Sim said local use of palm oil products currently stood at 20 percent, while about 80 percent was for export markets.

“We urge manufacturers of all downstream palm oil products to place the “Sayangi Sawitku” campaign label on their products to educate the consumers that (the products) are made of palm oil,” she said during a question-and-answer session with companies under the Cooking Oil Stabilisation Scheme (COSS) today.

Earlier in her speech, Kok said since the pre-launch of national level “Sayangi Sawitku” campaign, various activities and programmes had been carried out with local people, students from the different schools, colleges and universities.

“The objective of this campaign is to cultivate the spirit of love and pride towards Malaysian palm oil, as well as the appreciation of the commodity’s contribution towards the economy,” she added.

Kok said the mandatory implementation of the SCCS-Supply Chain Certification Standard for palm oil processing facilities involved with COSS was June 30, 2019.

“Palm oil processing facilities that are not involved with COSS, need to get the SCCS certification before December 31, 2019,” she said.

Meanwhile, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the government had allocated RM600 million this year to subsidise cooking oil.

“The allocation involves 60,000 metric tonnes or 3.69 percent of the subsidised cooking oil, involving 280 cooking oil packagers under the COSS scheme nationwide.”

“The government will give them 60 sen subsidy for every one kilogramme of the RM2.50 cooking oil packet,” Saifuddin said.

- Bernama