She said the downtrend was also due to the lower export price of CPO.

“The export price was not good and this too impacted the CPO,” she said.

Malaysian palm oil exports fell by a steep 14.8 per cent for the first half of April from a month earlier, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said.

May 2012 contract fell RM19 to RM3,498 per tonne, June 2012 slipped RM20 to RM3,490 per tonne, July 2012 dropped RM10 to RM3,487 while August 2012 decreased RM15 to RM3,462 per tonne.

Volume fell to 28,067 lots from 35,013 lots , while open interest rose to 118,643 contracts from 110,645 contracts.

On the physical market, April South fell RM55 to RM3,475 from RM3,530 per tonne.