The Palm Oil Student Ambassador Programme With YB Teresa Kok
On 23rd May 2019, with great honour, student scholars from UCSI University were engaged in a Palm Oil Student Ambassador Programme which was initiated by YB Teresa Kok on palm oil issues and was organized by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council in G08, Block G UCSI University south wing.
The programme started off with a video clip featuring our current Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammad rebuking on accusation of palm oil being main cause of Malaysian’s killing diseases and deforestation in Malaysia. He also stated that the anti palm oil campaign arose because of competition between palm oil and other plant oil in the market.
Mr Khor Ban Hock, a dietician from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, then cheered the audience up with his humorous speech on ‘Healthy Eating and Palm Oil.
He highlighted that eating healthily does not contradict with taking in palm oil.
In fact, palm oil is free of trans fat as it never needs hydrogenation. Trans fats are harmful fats that mainly affect our health and lead to obesity today. Palm oil is rich with vitamin E tocotrienols and has balanced the fatty acid composition. Palm oil causes less oil absorption in food and is stable at high temperature thus is favoured in food manufacturing.
If compared to other types of oil, palm oil also contributes to less saturated fats. He emphasized on eating evidence-based to live and palm oil nutritional value is undeniable.
A speaker from Planters United then gave a brief introduction to Palm Oil Youth Advocacy. He called upon the audience to spread awareness on importance of palm oil and to fight the anti palm oil campaign. Palm oil is the pillar of support for Malaysia’s prosperity and part of Malaysian’s daily life. Lots of people are consuming palm oil without their own acknowledgement. As for planters, palm oil is their main income source to survive.
Right after him, Dr Ramesh Veloo, a member of the Malaysian Oil Scientist Association, introduced the palm oil industry to the audience from the perspective of a planter.
He highlighted that the largest scale of deforestation in Malaysia was due to the beef industry but not the palm oil industry that most foreigners and even Malaysians thought of. He suggested that the palm oil price drops for these few years but will rise like a cycle. To improve the industry, the efficiency of plantation management, labour management and industry image must be improved. Innovations are essential to overcome the yield challenge. He also emphasized on talent management to develop a pool of future planters and called upon the youth to join as planters because of the endless potential of the industry.
The programme was pushed to its climax by the speech by YB Teresa Kok, Minister of Primary Industries Malaysia. She highlighted that 74% of the total agricultural land in Malaysia is planted with palm trees and export for palm oil industry in 2018 is 67.5 billion ringgit which indicate the necessity of palm oil industry to contribute to Malaysia’s economy. She also rebuked the unfounded accusation from the western people on palm oil industry being leading cause of deforestation by showing data in which 55.3% of Malaysia is still covered by forest thus the accusation is not relevant. She also shared her experiences on her visits to several Europe countries regarding the Delegated Act. She explained that most of the Europe ministers and officers have never been to Malaysia themselves but are influenced by information spread on social media, like the video clips on “Palm oil kills orang utans” by Greenpiece in Germany. She stated that the Europe society thought that there is barely any forest in Malaysia due to oil palm industry and the entire society was brainwashed to be anti palm oil. She tried to convinced them that orang utans, palm oil industry and forest can co-exist in Malaysia but her effort was fruitless. She was dedicated to improve the industry image and called upon the audience to be Malaysian Palm Oil Ambassador and join marching on Merdeka Day. She marked the end of her speech by promoting the Sayangi Sawitku campaign.
After that, YB Teresa Kok was invited to join a forum with Ms Belvinder Kaur Sron, Deputy CEO of MPOC, Khaw Liang Fa, as moderator, Looi Jiale, organizing committee of Green Up project and Tan Ee Wen, a Food Science and Nutrition student.
Looi gave a brief introduction on Green Up project’s effort related to sustainability and Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in promoting growth and use of sustainable palm oil products through credible global standards and engagement of stakeholders.
RSPO unites the stakeholders from seven sectors of the palm oil industry, which are the planters, manufacturers, investors, retailers, traders, social NGOs and environmental NGOs.
It has developed a standard which are the environmental and social criteria that a company must comply with to produce certified sustainable palm oil. By 30th April 2019, 19% of palm oil is certified by RSPO while 92 counties including Malaysia are members of RSPO.
In Malaysia, we have the Malaysian Palm Oil Certification Council (MPOCC) that develop the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification scheme.
All oil palm planters and smallholders are required to be certified by MPOCC for their products to be accepted.
She sought advice from the minister on efforts that should be made by RSPO Malaysia and MPOCC so that the EU will recognise the certificates.
The minister highlighted that there is no conflict between MPOCC and RSPO in giving certification.
Therefore, MPOC has been sending officers to all small and medium-size estate to give educational talks. Besides, the government has covered the cost of certification for smallholders. The government has made a lot of efforts on the subject. Ms Belvinder added that certification is necessary, but value and recognition of the certification are what matters most.
The problem that a lot of oil palm planters had with RSPO was that there is a lot of RSPO certified palm oil in the market, but there are insufficient buyers for them.
The planters of certified sustainable palm oil will expect high and worthy returns after spending their efforts in being certified.
The industry has invested a lot in certification.
RSPO certification provides a low yield with this is not favoured by producers. Palm oil produced has to be certified sustainable palm oil to be exported to the global market.
Tan then presented data showing that most food products contain palm oil but is stated in its various scientific names in the material list so people without a science background cannot recognise the palm oil content in food.
Palm oil is widely used in food manufacturing due to its stability because of its higher percentage of saturated fats. Its durability has lengthened the shelf life of food products containing palm oil.
She also explained about applications of palm oil in non-food industries and concluded that palm oil plays a crucial role in the economy.
85% of palm oil is said to be used for food products according to the statistics. She brought up a question about how the EU’s ban on palm oil will affect food manufacturers in Malaysia since the food industry depends heavily on palm oil.
The minister mentioned about the Delegated Regulations about biofuel, and there is no physical ban on palm oil, but EU tends to ban palm oil psychologically with the “Palm Oil Free” label on food products and information on social media.
She also questioned if all those food products labelled “Palm Oil Free” really do not contain any palm oil or is just another promoting technique to push sales.
The forum was ended with the question and answer section. The audience was allowed to have YB Teresa Kok and Ms Belvinder to clear their doubts. A lady named Margarete enquired on how we can change the image of palm oil. She mentioned about the case when the United State soybean industry launched an attack on tropical oil. She also said that our medical doctors recommend olive oil, soybean oil and all other kinds of foreign oil but not palm oil. People are willing to spend much for olive oil but not normal cooking oil containing palm oil that is much cheaper. Ms Belvinder stated that the soybean industry in the US was just protecting its industry and America once attacked palm oil that it clogs our arteries.
Malaysia had defended our palm oil with researches and examination results from a reputable laboratory stating that palm oil is a good oil. She highlighted that palm oil will never be banned because there is not enough supply of palm oil for the ever increasing populations that all need to consume fats. Besides, only a few countries in the whole world are able to produce sufficient palm oil like Malaysia and Indonesia while most countries around the world are net importers of palm oil. Malaysians look down on palm oil because it is cheap but the low price does not mean low quality. That perception has to be removed from the consumers’ mind. Palm oil is cheap in Malaysia because we are producing it. She emphasized that people need to have faith in the high-quality palm oil produced by Malaysia and that there is only a good diet and bad diet but no good oil and bad oil. Food manufacturers favour palm oil because it is a high-quality trans fats free oil that does not need hydrogenation to be solidified. The perceptions of palm oil kill orangutans or palm oil is bad for health has to be removed from the social media landscape.
The group photo session marked the end of the programme.
MPOC in collaboration with Youth Beyond Boundaries (YBB) of UCSI University, has created a Palm Oil Wall Mural that was then officiated by YB Teresa Kok.
The minister proceeded to witness the soap making workshop. The workshop was organized by Youth Beyond Boundaries (YBB) and sponsored by MPOC to encourage UCSI students in promoting environmental awareness by using palm-based ingredients in the making of handmade soap.
Later, at mini Press Conference surrounded by the media, YB Teresa Kok mentioned that the forum was a good knowledge sharing session with the students so that they know more about palm oil.
She also mentioned that the Delegated Regulation will be approved by the EU and she actually expected her visits would not make many changes. She was welcomed warmly by the ministers and parliament members from the member countries, and that she is due to visit Europe again in October after the election and – hope UK can be the first country to accept the MSPO.
The programme empowered students with accurate knowledge on palm oil, instilled pride for the nation’s biggest commodity and spread awareness on palm oil industry’s significance to Malaysia and the unfair anti-palm oil campaign by NGOs in the west.
It is good to see that students were welcomed to sign up to be a Palm Oil Ambassador – and to be a part of the change.