Palm oil has received quite a bad reputation recently with environmental activists claiming it is causing deforestation. This has not been good for nations that depend on the commodity for income. Especially Indonesia and Malaysia who are the top two exporters of palm oil on the planet, providing the world with 85% of all the palm oil in production. Overall, the global palm oil trade is said to be worth around $60 billion.
Indonesia is the top palm oil producer in the world. Not too long ago the government there told some retailers in the capital Jakarta to remove food products with “palm oil-free” labels from their shops. Now, Malaysia’s biggest chain supermarket, Mydin, is doing the same thing in their country. Malaysia is the world’s second-largest palm oil producer. The country has launched an international public relation and lobbying offensive to protect the reputation of its key export.
To these nations, it’s already bad enough that in many parts of the world that palm oil is perceived as an evil that must be eliminated. For example, the European Union passed an act this year requiring the slow phase-out of palm oil as a renewable fuel by 2030. Although palm oil is used as biodiesel fuel in some areas, most of it (almost 70%) is used in cooking and food products, such as bread and pizza, as well as other products like soaps and shampoos.
So, in efforts to salvage one of their most valuable items, the Malaysian government is considering banning all products that are marked ‘palm oil-free.’ For the time being, Mydin is removing all products claiming to be anti-palm oil. Ameer Ali Mydin, the managing director of Mydin Mohamed Holdings, which owns the supermarket chain said the aim is to convey the importance of palm oil to the Malaysian economy.
Ameer Ali told reporters at an event:
We must support palm oil but must also make sure (to counter) the subtle messages, the marketing and branding exercises that people do, to tell customers not to take palm oil. By labeling something that there is no palm oil, you’re actually telling people that palm oil is bad for you.
Malaysia’s minister of primary industries, Teresa Kok, supports Mydin’s move saying she hopes other supermarkets and shops in the country would follow suit. There was also an incident a few months back where the Malaysian government promised action against an international school for spreading “anti-palm oil propaganda.”
