Palm oil futures in Malaysian markets have hit record low prices – lowest since March 12, after weeks of continuous drops.
Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) reported that stocks fell approximately 10.68% at the end of March, as production output was offset by exports, per the Business Recorder.
Malaysia is the second largest palm oil producer and exporter in the world, right after Indonesia, with ‘inventories at 1.79 million tons, a 6.65% decline from the previous month, with output at 1.38 million tons and exports at 1.23 million tons,’ according to a Reuters report.
The low output, Bloomberg noted, is the result of aging trees in the region, in addition to the reduced number of laborers and stricter controls on land clearing.
On the other side of the world, Colombian and Guatemalan farmers have seen twice the yield of that in Southeast Asia per hectare, making Latin America the new emerging hub in the palm oil market.
“Palm oil exports from Central and South America are climbing. They jumped about 70% in the past decade, compared with an increase of just 14% in global shipments — a sharp rise even if exports from those regions still make up only 5% of the world total, compared with almost 90% from Indonesia and Malaysia,” Bloomberg explained, citing USDA data.
