KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia and Switzerland will form a special joint committee comprising experts from both nations to cooperate in issues relating to palm oil.
The Ministry of Primary Industries will work with the Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (EAER) to set up the special joint committee,
This was agreed upon during a meeting here between Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok and Johann Schneider-Ammann, who is Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research head on Monday.
The ministry said the special committee would explore palm oil-related opportunities towards sustainability, bilateral trade, exchange of relevant scientific technologies and possible collaboration in downstream palm oil industry applications.
“Both ministers agreed that this would go a long way towards addressing the many negative sentiments associated with palm oil in Switzerland and would also be an important tool to assure local Swiss rapeseed farmers that imported palm oil will not pose a threat to their livelihood in the future,” it said in a statement today.
Kok expressed satisfaction with the bilateral meeting since it would ensure continued export of palm oil to Switzerland and could even help attract direct Swiss investments through technology providers for various palm oil downstream activities.
The meeting was held at a crucial time since on September 25 this year, the upper house of the Swiss Parliament had narrowly defeated a motion to restrict importation of palm oil and its applications into Switzerland.
The Swiss motion was triggered by their concern that palm oil was produced unsustainably while contributing to deforestation.
“Such misinformation propagated by a strong NGO (non-governmental organisation) anti-palm oil campaign had succeeded in creating a major negative perception around palm oil,” it said.
The ministry said Switzerland was, however, a comparatively small importer of palm oil. In 2017, a total of 29,100 tonne of palm oil and palm products were imported and primarily used for various food applications.
It said the Malaysian delegation was also informed during the meeting that the Swiss authorities were desirous of maintaining at least one third of their local consumption for locally-produced rapeseed oil and to support the local Swiss rapeseed farmers.
“These concerns coupled with the sustainability debate triggered the motion on palm oil in their Parliament,” it said.
Kok said Malaysia already produced nearly 42 per cent of the global certified sustainable palm oil – yet this was not fully taken up by the European industry.
Malaysia’s overall goal to have its entire palm oil supply chain certified through MSPO (Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil Certificate) was also explained along with scientific investments through genome research that open avenues for higher yields in oil palm plantations.
“These factual explanations were well received by the Swiss Minister and his experts, who expressed that they were glad to be updated on such positive steps already taken by Malaysia,” it said.
Kok is leading a palm oil mission to Switzerland and the European Union from September 28 to October 6.
She is accompanied by officials from the ministry, Malaysian Palm Oil Board, Malaysian Palm Oil Council, Malaysian Palm Oil Certification Council and Forest Research Institute of Malaysia.