KUALA LUMPUR: The European and American continents are ranked third and fourth respectively as export countries of palm oil and palm oil products as of May this year.
These statistics were revealed by Plantation Industries and Commodities (MPIC) Deputy Minister Datuk Datu Nasrun Datu Mansur at the Dewan Rakyat today.
Datu Nasrun, who is also a Barisan Nasional (BN) Silam MP, was replying to Pas Hulu Langat MP
Dr Che Rosli Che Mat, who enquired about state of palm oil exports in Europe and the United States throughout 2016 to June 2017 and community's support and acceptance.
"Based on performance reports, in 2016, the export value of palm oil and palm oil products to Europe amounted to RM10.45 billion, 15.5% of export of palm oil and palm products of that year.
"In the same year, the value of palm oil and palm oil products exports to the United States amounted to RM5.25 billion which is 7.8% of Malaysia's palm oil exports and palm oil products.
"For the period of January to May 2017, a total of 1.35 million tonnes of palm oil and palm oil products valued at RM4.81 billion was exported to Europe, which is 15.0% of the value of palm oil exports and Malaysian palm products for that period.
"Meanwhile, 0.55 million tonnes of palm oil and palm oil products worth RM2.57 billion or 8.0% of the total export value of palm oil and Malaysian palm products were exported to the United States," he said.
In Europe, countries such as Netherlands, Italy and Spain were major palm oil and palm oil products importers while other European countries, palm oil is used in the food and non-food industries, especially biodiesel.
"In general, palm oil and palm oil products are well received by countries in Europe despite negative perception on palm-related issues such as environmental and sustainability and issues related to food and nutritional safety.
"This shows there is an increase in acceptance of palm oil among consumers in Europe despite the anti-palm oil campaigns in the region," he said.
Recently, the Belgian Court of Appeal was in favour of Ferrero, the maker of Europe's bestseller breakfast spread Nutella.
Since 2012, Ferrero Group had been defending Nutella's market leading position against rival "Choco" produced by supermarket chain Delhaize.The court had ruled Delhaize's advertising claims about the health and environmental benefits of a palm oil-free "Choco" spread were illegal.
The five-year legal battle at Belgium centred around Delhaize's advertisement campaign with regards to Choco's label prominently displaying "No Palm Oil" and insinuating better nutrition than that of Nutella which incorporates palm oil as its main ingredient.
"This decision had allowed Ferrero to increase the use of palm oil in its production while also exploring new markets.
"This will enhance the image of palm oil in Europe and enable increased exports of palm oil products to the continent In the Americas, the United States, Brazil and Canada are the major importers of Malaysian palm oil," said Datu.
He added that in the Europe, palm oil is used in food and non-food-based industries.
"While the United States and Canada are among the major producers of vegetable oils such as soybean oil and rapeseed oil, Malaysia's palm oil is imported due to its high quality, competitive price and as a substance to formulated in food-based products," he said.
He pointed out that palm oil consumption in the United States continues to increase following the status-recalling of Generally Recognised As Safe (GRAS) for hydrogenated fat (hydrogenated fat) that will take effect in mid-2018.
A resolution by the European Parliament recently called for the European Union to phase out by 2020 the use of vegetable oils in biodiesel that are allegedly produced in an unsustainable way leading to deforestation.
The resolution includes palm oil.