Easy finance for palm oil import

Malaysia has offered Bangladesh easy finance for procuring palm oil with reduced cost of transportation to Bangladesh. In an interview with New Age, Malaysian minister for plantation industries and commodities, Tan Sri Bernard Dompok, said Bangladesh market has enormous potential for palm oil export from his country. 'We are ready to provide special finance to Bangladesh importers for procuring palm oil from Malaysia,' Dompok said who came to Dhaka to attend a fair of Malaysian palm oil and seminar on this product. He said that the finance-Palm Oil Credit Payment Arrangement- is designed mainly for the private sector importers but it needs guarantees from government. He said some Bangladeshi millers were importing palm oil from Indonesia at low cost transportation due to convenient shipping between ports in Bangladesh and Indonesia. 'We will take steps for shipping Malaysian palm oil to Bangladeshi refiners at lower cost,' he said. The minister said his country produces best quality palm oil so they could offer better products to Bangladesh market. In 2008, Bangladesh imported 217,264 tonnes of Malaysian palm oil, but from January to October this year, the volume declined to 56,726 tonnes worth $28 million. A good number of Bangladeshi importers are now importing palm oil from Indonesia on better deals in terms of price and transportation cost. According to Bangladesh Bank, the country's annual bill for import of crude, seeds and refined oil is around one billion dollars when the total supply to the consumers level worth $1.5 billion with some local productions. Palm oil, directly sourced from Malaysia and Indonesia or procured from the Singapore-based traders, meets around two-thirds of the country' s demands. 'Edible oil consumption in Bangladesh is increasing with economic growth. But current per capita annual consumption of oil in Bangladesh is still as low as only 8.6 kilogrammes compared to the world's average consumption of 22kg,' he said. While asked about future oil price, he said it would depend on market dynamics including demand and supply.' He does not believe that Bangladeshi oil millers can control the prices in local market as market is open for all wishful importers. The Malaysian minister invited Bangladeshi importers to source timbers and papers from Malaysia.