Malaysia seeks ways to help palm oil smallholders

Malaysia said it is looking for ways to assist palm oil smallholders to weather the new lower tax structure imposed by Indonesia, which has affected about 40% of the local smallholders. “What we are looking at is how the local industry can receive assistance while undergoing this phase without hurting smallholders, and the plantation sector at large,” said Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok. “We will try to accelerate the downstream sector to be much more competitive,” he added. Indonesia slashed the maximum export duty on refined, bleached and deodorized palm olein in bulk from 15% to 7%, but maintained the export duty on crude palm oil (CPO) at 15%. To help plantation owners, last year the Malaysian government issued a duty-free CPO export quota of three million tons for plantation firms that have overseas refineries. Tan said that the two governments are discussing the issue. (March 6, 2012)