GDP from the palm oil industry in Malaysia 2015-2021

In 2021, the gross domestic product from palm oil was estimated to be 34.79 billion Malaysian ringgit. Malaysia is one of the world’s leading producers of palm oil, and the palm oil industry is a significant contributor to the Malaysian agricultural sector.

The world’s most widely used edible oil

Palm oil is used in a variety of consumer goods, from cosmetics to confectionery. Certain properties of palm oil, such as its resistance to oxidation and stability at high temperatures, make it suitable to be used in shelf-stable consumer goods. Worldwide consumption of palm oil had continued to increase over the years, despite the growing awareness of the environmental costs of palm oil cultivation, especially in its leading producers globally, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Malaysian efforts for sustainable palm oil

Malaysia had undertaken efforts to assure consumers of the sustainability of their palm oil. The Malaysian Palm Oil Association is one of the founding members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, a non-profit that seeks to develop and implement environmentally friendly standards in the production of palm oil. These measures have led to an increase in certified sustainable palm oil production areas. However, it has yet to reduce the size of land cleared for palm oil plantations without proper assessment of the environmental impact, thus threatening Malaysia’s rainforests and wildlife.