Malaysia is set to partner with industries in the oil palm sector to develop their capacities. This would be done through the sharing of ideas and technology to grow its oil palm production for export.
Chairman of the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC), Dato Lee Yeow Chor disclosed this at the opening of the 2017 Ghana-Malaysia Oil Palm Trade Seminar (POTS) in Accra to organize to foster the diplomatic relations between both countries.
Ghana’s first international commercial trade in oil palm took place in 1820. Starting from the wild palm harvesting, oil palm evolved into an agricultural crop and plantations were established by 1850.
Ghana now has a total of 305,758ha of oil palm and more than 80% of this is cultivated by private small-scale farmers.
Currently, the West African country has an unmet demand of 35,000tons of palm oil. The estimated unmet demand in the ECOWAS sub-region is 850,000tons.
Based on this backdrop, Dato Lee Yeow Chor said Malaysia has established a research facility in Accra as a means of facilitating palm oil growth in Ghana.
He indicated that, the production of palm oil to meet export demand was a long-term achievement.
Mr. Chor also revealed that, the third quarter of 2017 has seen Ghana-Malaysia palm oil trade sit at $140 million.
He explained that imports into Ghana increased by 23.9% to 203,000 tonnes in 2016 as compared to 163,000 tonnes in 2015.
“Within the first nine months of 2017, Malaysian palm imports into Ghana totaling 213,000 tonnes had already exceeded the palm oil imports for the entire 2016” he added.
Malaysia which is currently dominating the world palm oil market started the establishment of oil palm plantations with planting materials from Ghana.
Credit: ModernGhana.com
