BANGI (April 12): Palm oil industry leaders and consumers should stand up and say that they are using palm oil in the daily life to put the commodity in a better position, said Oil World Executive Director Thomas Mielke.

He said they needed to convey the message to the world as efforts to inform consumers on the benefit of palm oil should not be taken lightly in light of the negativity and criticism encircling the commodity.

“Don’t stop repeating the message because even though European countries are planning to reduce the usage of palm oil in their biofuel, the data is showing differently as the numbers are increasing,” he said at the Programme Advisory Committee Seminar organised by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board here today.

Mielke noted that food industry should be the primary focus of industry players as it used 70 per cent or 45.5 million tonnes of palm oil, whereas the use of the commodity in biofuel accounted for only 17.8 per cent or 11.6 million tonnes.

He was responding to reports that British supermarket chain Iceland was planning to remove palm oil from its own-brand food by year-end as part of its efforts to stem deforestation in Indonesia and Malaysia and help species under threat of extinction.

Iceland, which trades from 900 stores, noted that reducing palm oil products on its shelves would lower demand for the edible oil by more than 500 tonnes a year.