KUALA LUMPUR: THE sentiment among Malaysians to boycott European products is on the rise as the European Union continues to discriminate against palm oil, said the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda).
“There are early signs of retaliation,” said Felda chairman Tan Sri Shahrir Samad when asked if oil palm planters would consider a “Buy European Last” campaign in retaliation towards the EU parliament’s vote to ban palm biodiesel from 2021.
“Personally, when I am at the supermarket, I will look at the label of the product on the shelf. If it is from Europe, I will put it back,” he said, here, yesterday.
Shahrir said the campaign had been brought up in conversations among oil palm planters in the country.
“We have discussed this among ourselves but we are not making it an official campaign,” he said, adding that Felda fully supported the government’s retaliation strategy against the palm oil boycott.
He said the EU’s action was in stark contrast with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal of poverty alleviation.
“The EU’s baseless allegations of deforestation in Asia negates the obvious role of oil palm cultivation in raising living standards among rural communities,” said Shahrir.
Earlier yesterday, more than 2,000 smallholders handed over petitions to the EU Delegation Office and 17 other European embassies, here.
Speaking on behalf of 650,000 smallholders nationwide, they appealed for an immediate halt to the EU’s discrimination and banning of against palm oil.
Shahrir said this was the first time the smallholders had taken to the streets to voice their grouses against the EU palm oil ban.
He did not rule out future demonstrations. “Rural folks can always escalate the protests as the economic future of our children are at stake."
In the past, he said, it had always been dialogues and interaction between government to government and parliament to parliament. "But now it is between the people of Malaysia and the EU Parliament,” Shahrir said.
It was reported that the EU Parliament would hold plenary vote against the palm biofuel ban proposal tomorrow (Wednesday).
Asked if today’s event would have an impact on the EU’s decision to ban palm biodiesel from January 2021, he said small farmers need to survive and protect the economic future of their children.
"Felda was set up to give land to the landless and give job to the jobless. The EU palm oil ban is unethical and would drive many people in developing Asia back into poverty again," Shahrir said.
Separately, Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong called on the EU to stop discriminating against palm oil.
"The EU's palm oil ban would allow rival rapeseed and sunflower biodiesel as the feedstock in EU's Renewable Energy Directive while palm bioidiesel is excluded from January 2021," he said.
"The oil palm farmers' protests is a clear signal to the European Parliament, European Council and the EU president that many people's livelihoods and future earnings are at stake," Mah added.