KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 1): Palm oil production in Malaysia is set to drop slightly in 2020 from the 20.5 million tonnes recorded in 2019, said a plantation expert.

Thomas Mielke of ISTA Mielke GmbH said Malaysia’s competitor Indonesia would also experience a slowdown of production growth by 1.8 million tonnes in 2020 to 45.4 million from the 43.6 million tonnes this year.

“The consumption of palm oil will increase by 7.7 million tonnes in 2018/2019 with global supply and demand balance expected to tighten in 2019/2020 as production will only be at 78.2 million tonnes while its usage is 80-81 million tonnes,” he said in his presentation at the 15th Indonesian Palm Oil Conference.

Bloomberg reported that the lower production and higher demand would push crude palm oil price higher to trade at RM2,600 per tonne for the first half of next year.

It said the commodity prices would be “considerably higher” in 2020.

Mielke also noted that one of the world's largest palm oil consumers, China, was increasing imports of palm oil, [soybean] oil, sun[flower] oil and other oils to compensate smaller domestic production resulting from reduced soybean crushing.

Mielke was one of the speakers during the three-day event that began on Oct 30.

Other palm oil experts at the event are Dr James Fry from LMC International Ltd and Dorab Mistry from Godrej International Ltd.

Themed ‘Palm Oil Industry: Managing Market, Enhancing Competitiveness’, the 15th IPOC convened as the commodity continues to be plagued by low prices and is suffering from a bad image globally, being seen as a major cause of deforestation and following the recent devastating forest and ground fires that have hit the country.