Thailand mulls to join Malaysia, Indonesia move against end of oil palm use by EU

BANGKOK, March 15 (TNA)!- The government, through the Ministry of Energy, is looking into a case in which neighboring Malaysia and Indonesia have sought cooperation from oil palm producing and exporting countries, including Thailand, to join their movement against a plan by the European Union (EU) to stop using oil palms for its production of bio-fuels by 2021. Witoon Kulcharoenwirat, Director-General of the ministry's Department of Energy Business, told journalists of the case, noting that his department recently received letters from Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, calling for the cooperation, forwarded by the Thai Ministry of Commerce. Witoon said his department is, thus, gathering data and analyzing impacts on Thailand from the EU plan, if implemented, covering a possible fall of the prices of locally-grown oil palms, with a conclusion of the ongoing study expected within the next couple of months. Meanwhile, the Palm Oil Industry Club of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) and the Thai Biodiesel Producer Association anticipated a drop in wold oil palm prices caused by the EU plan, at least in a short run-psychological effect, urging the Thai government to be prepared for the problem by starting to promote more use of oil palms in other industries instead. Thailand's Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Transport are joining forces, in the meantime, to test run B10 bio-diesel, in which more palm oil is used in the production process than the B7 fuel, on local trains. (TNA)