Malaysian Palm Oil Technical Promotion Mission to Tashkent, Republic of Uzbekistan
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In view of the growing demand for Malaysian palm oil in Uzbekistan, the Malaysian Palm Oil Promotion Council (MPOC) and Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) in cooperation with the Embassy of Malaysia in Tashkent has organized a Palm Oil Technical Mission to Tashkent on 2nd November 2011.
MPOC and MPOB were represented by the senior officers from their respective headquarters in Kuala Lumpur and also by its regional office based in Lahore, Pakistan, which also covers Central Asian countries including Uzbekistan.
During the Mission in Tashkent, MPOC and MPOB have organized a technical seminar which was attended by more than 100 participants mainly from local food processing industries i.e. producers of cooking oil, margarine, confectionary, local entrepreneurs and a number of Uzbekistan’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry representatives.
The seminar was organized with the aim of promoting usage of palm oil in food industry in Uzbekistan and also at the same time to provide technical advise on local food industry and enterprises.
Based on 2010 figure, Uzbekistan is requires about 450,000 tons of cooking oil and fats annually. Uzbekistan only produces about 270,000 tons of cotton oil annually which is not sufficient to fully meet the domestic demand for cooking oil, margarine and related food industries. In order to meet the huge domestic demand on oil and fats, Uzbekistan had to import 180.000 tons of cooking oil and fat products from other countries in 2010.
From this figure, about 40,000 tons of Malaysian palm oil and palm oil related products were imported by Uzbekistan in 2010. As the government of Uzbekistan is gradually reducing the size of cotton growing area in the country and given the rapid increase of its population in the recent years, we believe Uzbekistan’s imports of cooking oil and fats in the coming years will be further increased. As such Malaysian palm oil and related products could fill in the gap and meet part of the increasing domestic demand in Uzbekistan.
In general, the MPOC and MPOB’s efforts in organizing their technical mission to Uzbekistan on 2nd November 2011 were timely and are of mutual benefit for both countries. The MPOC and MPOB’s initiative will definitely promote awareness on the usages of Malaysian palm oil in Uzbekistan among its food industries and also entrepreneurs and at the same time it will further increase the demand on Malaysian palm oil in Uzbekistan in the future.
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Embassy of Malaysia
Tashkent
19th November 2011