Total production of palm oil by Malaysia in the first 10 months of 2004 was 11.402 million tonnes which was an increase of 234 582 t, or 2.1%, over the production of the same period of the previous year (Table 1). When traced on a monthly basis, production in the first two months of 2004 exceeded that of the same months of the previous year before it embarked on an inclining trend. Nonetheless, production from March till July 2004 was lower than that for the corresponding months in 2003.