Palm Oil Supply and Disappearance: A Review
The palm oil industry has been a significant driver of the Malaysian economy. Accentuated by high crude palm oil (CPO) price, growth in export earnings had strengthened to a new record high at RM 65.2 billion in 2008 from RM 45.1 billion in the previous year. But from the supply side, the national average fresh fruit bunches (FFB) yield in 2009 dipped by nearly 5% to 19.20 t ha-1 as against 20.18 t ha-1 achieved in 2008, while the oil yield posted a year-on-year decrease of 3.7% to 3.93 t ha-1. Subsequently, there was a trivial year-on-year decrease of 1% in the production of Malaysian palm oil from 17.73 million tonnes in 2008 to 17.56 million tones in 2009.