KUALA LUMPUR (April 30): Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok has called for more industry players to play their part in promoting the use of palm oil, by placing the "Sayangi Sawitku" logo on products containing palm oil, to help raise public awareness among Malaysians.

Kok was speaking at a press conference here today after the launch of FGV Holdings Bhd's SAJI Sayangi Sawitku campaign — in support of the government's "Love MY Palm Oil" campaign — which will see the logo displayed on all SAJI cooking oil products, commercial advertisements and FGV tankers.

Kok said participation from industry players as ambassadors of locally produced palm oil could help raise awareness on the commodity. This is as anti-palm oil campaigns are aggressively carried out in European countries that are passing laws and regulations to phase out its use, citing palm oil as a driver of deforestation.

"I hope that more companies which use palm oil in their products would follow suit by labelling those products with the logo, so users can be aware that the products — be it cooking oil or other food that they consume — in fact do contain palm oil.

"This is one of the processes to raise awareness and educate users that palm oil is in fact seamlessly integrated into our daily lives," said Kok.

The "Love MY Palm Oil" campaign was launched in January with the aim of instilling national pride and greater appreciation for Malaysian palm oil, and to recognise the commodity's contribution to the economy.

The campaign is set to involve events, programmes and activities targeted at different stakeholders including industry members, professionals, students, academia and the general public, whereby the industry, organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and individuals are urged to join in the campaign's cause to defend Malaysian palm oil.

Meanwhile, Kok said her ministry and industry regulator Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) have so far received no complaints on the use of the B10 biodiesel since the mandate was implemented beginning February.

"All these while, there is no issue in using a [higher] biodiesel blend. We hope that more Malaysians would opt for biodiesel, which could then help ease the country's palm oil stockpile," she added.