Malaysia’s palm oil sector should look into producing high value products and explore the renewable fuels market, says IOI CEO Lee Yeow Chor.
Speaking at a digital forum on the industry, Lee Yeow Chor, the CEO of IOI Corporation Berhad, said Malaysia’s palm oil sector should look into producing high-value products and explore the renewable fuels market. “In Asia, some big economies like China, Japan and Korea have set carbon neutral targets for 2050, and renewable fuel will be an important component for them to achieve these,” he said.Meanwhile, LMC International chairman James Fry cited leading biodiesel consumers Germany and the state of California as case studies, saying that the demand for biodiesel had seen a steady increase, and had remained resilient even during the pandemic.
He said Malaysia and India could be “comrades in arms” if a concerted effort was made to “look to the east” – towards the rest of Asia and educating consumers about the sustainability of palm oil and dispelling health concerns in order to tap into a market largely free of anti-palm oil lobbying.