MALAYSIA TO SEND REPS TO AUSTRALIA'S PALM OIL BILL COMMITTEE HEARING

PENAMPANG (Bernama) - Malaysia will send representatives
to Australia for a committee hearing to be held before the bill that requires
palm oil labeling, is debated at Australia's parliamentary level.

This would be another effort in correcting the misconceptions towards
Malaysia's palm oil practices, following Plantation Industries and Commodities
Minister Bernard Dompok's recent visit to the land down under.

"As we know the Australian Senate has passed the Food Standards Amendment
(Truth in Labeling - Palm Oil Bill) ... But before the Lower House of the
Australian Parliament's debate, there will be a hearing at the committee level.

"We are also sending representatives and the hearing this time will be on
the economic aspects and what we will explain to the Australians is that the
oil palm industry has lifted a lot of Malaysians out of the poverty trap
especially in rural areas, with not less than 600,000 people directly or
indirectly employed in the plantation industry," he told reporters after
launching a district level 1Malaysia futsal competition here Sunday.

He said Australians should be aware that smallholders represented
40 per cent of the industry, which meant if this commodity should be labeled as
something unsafe to consume, it would affect the source of livelihood for a lot
of people in Malaysia.

Dompok led a delegation to Australia in July to promote several
commodities including rubber and timber, but special focus was given towards
lobbying Australians against the Parliamentary move that could threaten
Malaysia's palm oil industry.

Asked on when the committee hearing would be held, he said Australian
Parliament had set an Aug 15 deadline for those wanting to present a case and
hearing would be fixed hereafter.

"The Malaysian team will consists of people on the ground, experts that have
done research on palm oil and will have a chance to present themselves and
defend their submissions before the Parliamentarians," he added.

Dompok has also asked the Malaysian Palm Oil Board to hold seminars and
workshops in Australia in order for locals to participate and understand more
about Malaysia's palm oil industry.

He also said although Australia has stated three grounds as reasons to pass
the bill, they were all unfounded due to misconceptions.

"They cited depletion of forests (environmental grounds), displacement of
orang utans and that palm oil was harmful on health grounds ...but it is a
known fact that Malaysia is committed to preserving at least 50 per cent of
total land as forests, and today we have 55.3 per cent as forest reserves.

"And, to say we have destroyed orang utans' habitat due to forest cutting is
also not true.....orang utan population is mostly in the east coast of
Sabah and smaller numbers yet in Sarawak, where both states have sanctuaries for
these primates ... While the health issue of palm oil has been addressed in the
past and is no longer an issue," Dompok explained.

In fact, he said the misconceptions towards Malaysia's palm oil practices
and the treatment of its wildlife has spread to other countries, which has led
to the international community coming to wrong conclusions.

"I have previously visited a zoo in Netherlands, where they had a lot
of negative materials, pasted around the zoo, on how orang utans were kept in
Malaysia and how palm oil cultivation was leading to forest depletion.

"When I spoke to some of the zoo staff, they did not know that there were
still abundant orang utans in Malaysia. They thought there were none in our
country because the forests were depleted.

"This shows complete ignorance and it is being furthermore fed by
(international) NGOs, some do not even know what they are talking about, so I
told them that they should come and see for themselves in Malaysia," he added.