Malaysia delays tax free crude palm oil export quotas

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has delayed issuing tax free crude palm oil export quotas for 2012 as it drafts a policy response to top supplier Indonesia’s move to change its tariffs and revive its own refineries, industry and government sources told Reuters.  The delay by Malaysia, the world’s No.2 producer, leaves more supply for local processors but comes at a time when some refined edible oil demand has already shifted to Indonesiawhich last year slashed export taxes for processed oils.

For plantation firms holding export quota licences, the delay has hampered their ability to supply their overseas refiners with cheap feedstock and meet existing export contracts for crude palm oil.

“The Malaysian government usually issues the quotas in the last week of December but until now, nothing has been given out,” one of the sources with a local plantation firm with a licence for the quotas told Reuters on Monday.

“We had been asking since December and the lack of action is affecting our business. This is why Malaysia’s exports are falling this month,” added the source who could not be identified as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

Cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance reported close to a 20 percent decline in Jan. 1-25 Malaysia palm oil export from the same period a month ago. Crude shipments alone slumped 75 percent to 74,640 tonnes.