It focuses its efforts on these two objectives, which I think are really good and important.“On the one hand, you got the mobilisation to promote the palm oil and improving its image which is lacking in the mind of the public opinion. So the government launched the promotion campaign, Love MY Palm Oil to help clear the crop's name,” he told Bernama.“And secondly, the development of an ambitious policy to promote environmental protection, including maintaining over 50 per cent biodiverse tropical rainforest, to cap Malaysia's total area for oil palm at 6.5 million hectares (ha) (from 5.8 million ha in 2018) and no oil palm cultivation on peat soil, as well as improving sustainability is indeed crucial in order to regain the trust of the European consumers. So I would not like people to think that the EU is an enemy of palm oil, and of Malaysia. We develop a dialogue with the government and palm oil producers as much as we can.“And we also decided to bring in our Environment Ambassador Yann Wehrling to visit Malaysia in early April where we took him to Sabah to have a look at conservation project there, wildlife habitat and oil palm plantation so that he can witness what is happening on the ground here.“Then we come back to Kuala Lumpur to hold a session with joint committee between both governments on palm oil cooperation. This is what we wish to bring forward in our dialogue with Malaysia.“And on palm oil, we have a research centre here looking on the agronomy of oil palm, called CIRAD (International Centre for Agricultural Research for Development) and this is also an area where we can work together, to make sure that oil palm can continue to grow in the best conditions.“You can grow your revenue without growing your acreage by raising your yield on the same acreage and that's one of the missions that the French research centre is pursuing,” he added.

Source: The Star May 08, 2019 02:37 UTC