ISLAMABAD: Malaysia aims to increase exports of palm oil to Pakistan from the current 22 per cent to 60 per cent, according to sources, after Islamabad expressed interest in importing more palm oil from the region.

Malaysian Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok said that Malaysia’s market share of palm oil in Pakistan is currently only 22 per cent, this can be improved, but they are also calling for lower-price crude palm oil (CPO), so thorough discussions between the two countries are needed.

“Hopefully from 22 percent, we can increase it to 50 percent or 60 percent. That would be a great improvement,” she said.

“Through bilateral trade, a lot of issues can be ironed out. When I went to Karachi, there was a request that there should be more flights from Pakistan to Malaysia, especially from Karachi,” the Malaysian Reserve reported.

“If you check from the embassy, there is also an increase of tourists applying for visas to come to Malaysia so there is a potential increase of bilateral trade between two countries,” she added.

At his bilateral meeting with PM Dr Mahathir Mohammad, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan recently promised to import more palm oil from Malaysia.

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Malaysia is the second largest palm oil producer after Indonesia, and has been its largest market in the last five years.