MPOB Makes Water-efficient Trees For Palm Oil Yield

El Niño

The MPOB is trying to make oil palm trees that can handle less rain. Ahmad Parveez Ghulam Kadir is the director general. They are researching and developing.

MPOB is testing trees in north Malaysia. This is to avoid El Nino impacts on palm oil yields. A person said this.

Ahmad Parveez said the R&D will take 10-15 years. They're studying clones of the plant that need less water and produce good yield.

At an event, Ahmad Parveez talked about the impact of El Nino on Malaysia's palm oil production. He said it will affect about 2% to 3% of production in Sabah and Sarawak.

He said hot weather won't affect palm oil production now. We can only see the effects in about 15-18 months.

He suggested that everyone should brace for the worst outcome due to El Nino's impact on palm oil production, which could possibly reach 20% based on the 2016 incident. This could result in a decline of around three million tonnes in overall production.

Malaysia may make 19 million tonnes of palm oil by 2023. Ahmad Parveez thinks so. He says the country's oil palm plantations got better worker support. In 2022, Malaysia produced 18.45 million tonnes of palm oil.

MPOB predicts palm oil price to go up to RM3,800-RM4,000 due to El Nino. The price average is expected to be RM4,200 per tonne in 2023.

Lam Jian Wyn has made some changes to this section. The following blog has been edited by Lam Jian Wyn. Lam Jian Wyn made some edits to this blog post.

Read more
This week's most popular news