India’s top vegetable oil trade body on Monday asked its members to stop buying palm oil from Malaysia, an unprecedented call aimed at helping New Delhi punish the country for criticising India over its policy towards Kashmir. India was Malaysia’s third-largest export destination in 2018 for palm oil and palm-based products, worth 6.84 billion ringgit ($1.63 billion). Vegetable oil contributed 2.8 per cent of Malaysia’s gross domestic product last year and 4.5 per cent to total exports. Household palm oil consumption falls in India during winter anyway as the tropical oil solidifies at lower temperatures. “After the Reuters story, many importers stopped buying Malaysian palm oil,” said a Mumbai-based dealer with a global trading firm.

Source: The Telegraph October 21, 2019 20:37 UTC