BERLIN: German stakeholders maintain palm oil is a good product and want more publicity on its positive attributes, says Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) chairman Datuk Lee Yeow Chor.

He said the industry players had voiced out complaints during a roundtable discussion held with visiting Malaysian officials that they were being targeted by the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on the quality of palm oil.

“They want us to have better communication on the strength of palm oil. To portray the image of palm oil as a sustainably produced oil,” he told Bernama here over the weekend.

Lee told the stakeholders that the MPOC office in Brussels would provide the support as well as information and materials needed to counter the false allegations.

He explained that there was no deforestation for palm oil as the way forward now was to increase production by way of productivity yield.

Lee was part of the 20-member delegation led by Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok on a working visit to Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium from Nov 10 to 21.

In Berlin, members had the opportunity to visit a power plant using palm oil in cooperation with Vattenfall Europe.

The standalone combined heat and power plant of 450 kilowatt hours had been receving palm oil as feedstock on a weekly basis from the IOI Group refinery in Rotterdam.

Lee, who is also executive director of IOI Corp, said the plant was running on coal, natural gas as well as 10% palm oil.

“However, they envisaged to use more palm oil. Palm oil is better than rapeseed for power generation as it produces less residue inside the engines,” he said. — Bernama

Source : The Star

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